the wreckroom

Till we meet again......

2011-06-05T17:06:00.003-05:00

This is the first time I have been able to bare posting this information on his blog, this is Michael's wife. Michael passed away on November 16, 2010 due to a brain aneurysm. He was loved so much and will be missed by all. Thank you all for reading his blog he really enjoyed posting things here with the music of choice to fit it. I still check in from time to time so if you would like to leave a message please do. Thank you. Sharon

august 29th...

2009-08-29T17:02:00.004-05:00

it was four years ago today. we were living in reno watching our beloved new orleans get slammed by a cat 4 hurricane called 'katrina'. the next morning, after it blew by, there was a profound feeling of relief... it looked as though we had missed the bullet. the t.v. was showing various parts of town, and while there was a lot of wind damage, it wasn't as bad as what we were seeing from mississippi.

...and then it came, but it didn't come in a huge wave through the city, it crept up like a big black snake slithering out of the swamp.

and it didn't stop coming til the bowl that is new orleans was full.

we sat 1800 miles away from our true home watching in horror as the devastation and desperation unfolded, helpless to do a damn thing but cringe. the shock turned to anger as the days dragged on and the city was left to it's own devises. five unbearable days we watched as thousands of people hung on waiting for help. many of our friends and relatives were in that mass of abandoned souls.

...and we could only think that could be us.

we had a house in metry to worry about, the one in which this is written, but that was of no concern, (it got flooded and is a whole 'nother story). the complete disregard in which the government, on all levels, handled the plight of so many americans infuriated us to no end. the media portrayed the city as out of control and lawless while showing vandals and looters pillage and plunder. there was no calvary on the horizon, except for the coast guard that worked tirelessly to snag people stuck on roofs.

the whole world was witness to the worst man made disaster on american soil and it wasn't pretty. new orleans was left to drown through a series of disasters that started long before the hurricane. to blame katrina alone is to only repeat the catastrophe again in the future. from the original engineering of the levees to the botched relief and rescue effort, even the rebuilding, it seems no one has ever really cared.

no wonder this town is called 'the city that care forgot'

so, here we are four years later. there are still people who will never be able to return to the city they love, probably too many to count. it really was a sort of diaspora, the refugees were flung all over this country. the rebuilding plods along like an old dog on a hot august afternoon, meandering with no destination or purpose, and no reason to do it fast. there are some signs of life, the quarter, the western suburbs, across the lake, but overall it is pretty disheartening.

still, i hear were winning the war in iraq...

we're a tough breed here, after all, and the music, food and culture is what makes this place so wonderful. it's the best damn spot on earth, even 5 feet below sea level. so... here's a few songs, in mp3, from the big easy to make this anniversary go down a bit smoother...
well, them and a couple of large stiff shots.

(for as long as a week via yousendit)

david bartholomew - who drank my beer while i was in the rear

dr. john - junko pardner

lee dorsey - who's gonna help brother get further?

the wild tchoupitoulas - meet the boys on the battlefront

the dukes of dixieland - do you know what it means to miss new orleans?

The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever (High quality)

2009-08-22T08:39:00.001-05:00

Blitzen Trapper: Black River Killer (official)

2009-08-17T13:59:00.001-05:00

a rainy day in the french quarter

2009-08-14T12:55:00.005-05:00

a few years ago we were at the french quarter festival, we being s.a., kimmy, p-man, angel and moi.
it rained fairly steadily all morning and we ducked in and out of places while walking mostly under balconies.

as we got to bourbon and st. ann s.a. dragged kim into this fortune teller shop to get their fortunes told. angel and i hung outside with p-man and sipped our drinks, (p-man sucked on the juice bottle). well the rain slacked a bit and i just walked out to the middle of bourbon st.and snapped off a few pics looking towards esplanade.

they were just a few pics out of a bunch that day but they looked pretty good so i stuck them on flicker.

so, the other day i get a message telling me one of those shots was picked for an online new orleans guide for schmap, the yahoo map directory.

i think it's kinda cool, but not as cool as jaques' 'street car art'.
(but then again i am not getting paid either...)

the beatles 09-09-09

2009-08-02T14:55:00.002-05:00

the beatles rockband game drops on september 9th, and from the look of the trailers it is gonna be nothing less than stunning...

and to think i wasted all those years learning their songs from the records. i just may have to ask for this for xmas, of course then i'll need that px-wee-360 thingy to play it on, right?

i dunno if santa can swing all that this year, but it really does look sweet... so for now i'll just have to resign myself to my guitar and the new remastered beatle records that are coming in the on same day for now.

here are a few trailers to get me all excited about september...

the beatles - rockband cinematic opening

the beatles - rockband trailer

the making of 'revolver'

harmonica maddness

2009-07-31T21:58:00.001-05:00

too funny, raymond scott's 'powerhouse' done superbly on harmonicas... if anyone knows who these guys aree lemme know.

Bonzo Dog band Hunting Tigers

2009-07-01T21:51:00.001-05:00

They bite
They scratch
They make an awful fuss
It's no use stroking them and saying "puss puss puss"
Oh
Hunting tigers out in India
Out in, out in, out in India (yuh)

field school week

2009-06-05T12:30:00.007-05:00

since this space never listens to radio, watches t.v. or rarely ventures farther than the neighborhood po-boy shop, word from the outside takes awhile to filter in. but when the good stuff eventually does get through, well, we get really excited...

such is the euphoria felt as we discovered the music of peter and david brewis, two brothers from sunderland england. together (under the guise of 'field music'), and separately, they are making sounds that can only be labeled as 'prog-pop'.

it is a smart, 21st century music loaded with heavy rhythmics, thought out lyrics, sweeping brian wilson harmonies, and loaded beatlesque melodies. the stuff they are doing is really like nothing we have heard before, yet reminds us of a whole lot of other things, xtc, yes, squeeze, todd rundgren, genesis, the police, peter gabriel, and even some gershwin in it all, of all things. it really is that good.

one find led to another, even better find. then another, then....

well, the lineage is kind of like this, 'the futureheads', (in which david brewis played drums, tho no longer), 'field music', (where the brothers got together to make one great angular pop album and some b-sides), 'school of language', (the first solo project, done by peter, very guitar heavy and hook laden), and'the week that was' (this is david's band that is the album, a lush sonic experiment that works on so many levels at once...).

with each step up the music gets infectious, denser, quirkier, and more complex. the brewis brothers have changed our musical world with their craftsman-like vitality and modern pop rock pop sensibilities.

we can't wait to hear what they do next!

and here are some mp3s of david and peter brewis doing what they do best, by way of yousendit for a week or so...

the futurehead - hounds of loves (mp3)
the futureheads - manray (mp3)

field music - a house is not a home (mp3)
field music - give it lose it take it (mp3)

school of language - keep your water (mp3)
school of language - disappointment '99 (mp3)
school of language - poor boy (mp3)

the week that was - learn to learn (mp3)
the week that was - the good life (mp3)
the week that was - scratching the surface (mp3)

where to find them...

the week that was on myspace

school of language website

field music on myspace

the futureheads official site

brewis bros interview (at bandstand busking)

david brewis' hit list

dark night of the soul

2009-05-18T09:09:00.010-05:00

the biggest buzz this week was not who won 'amerikan idle', it was over an album by three unlikely collaborators featuring a cast of support singers that will probably never get a proper release.

danger mouse, (he of the band 'gnarls barkely' and the controversial beatles/jay z mash-up 'grey album'), mark linkous, (he of the uber-sad 'sparklehorse'), and david lynch, (he who made 'eraserhead' and 'twin peaks'), have teamed up to produce a captivating piece of lush, near hypnotizing music. the songs are sung by various artists such as iggy pop, wayne coyne of the flaming lips, julian casablancas from the strokes, jason lytle, frank black of pixies , suzanne vega, vic chesnutt, james mercer of the shins, gruf rhys of the super furry animals, nina peerson from the cardigans and even david lynch (or so it says).

the announcement of the release later this summer of a book of photos by lynch that was to include the album was dampened by the fact that emi records has put the kibosh to the music part of the project...

as stated on npr.org...
An unnamed spokesperson for Danger Mouse says that "due to an ongoing dispute with EMI" the book of photographs will "now come with a blank, recordable CD-R. All copies will be clearly labeled: 'For legal reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.'" When contacted, EMI declined to comment and wouldn't confirm whether the label is even involved in the project.

the record was leaked earlier this month and is now all over the net. the problem is that a lot of the files are misnamed or tagged. so i took great pains to fix it up so i can put it on the blank cd when i get the book. i just thought i'd spread the love and this fine record while i was at it... so enjoy!

and here, in its entirety, ripped from npr.org, in the correct order, with all the tags fixed, is the album in 128kps mp3 for a week or whoever gets to it first, via yousendit.

danger mouse & sparklehorse - Revenge (Flaming Lips)

when you wish upon a waterspout.

2009-05-17T13:08:00.012-05:00

last night was a regular hang-around-the-house kinda saturday evening. on, or about, 10:30 we were doing our normal routine, s.a. was watching some world war II documentary on her computer, i was doing some equally important music listening on mine, and the dogs were sleeping, as usual.

the first hint of something gone awry was a clap of thunder that wasn't quite... well, then another loud BANG! we ran upstairs and hung onto the backroom balcony looking at a fireworks show (the result of a blown transformer a few blocks away) with wind-whipped debris flying willy-nilly thru the air. we ran back in soon enough as the rain started to pummel us like wet fists.

the pounding wind and rain continued with brilliant lightening and booming thunder for another 20 minutes. after it stopped we ventured out to wander around finding insulation and pieces of aluminum gutter and siding all over our yard and flooded street.

well, we were told to expect a bit of rain sometime during the night, but what we got was a frightening close-up of mother nature when she is pissed... luckily no one got hurt and just one lowly sno-ball stand was damaged.

and here is a short viddy i found that someone shot last night. the clip itself is not very enlightening (except at 28 seconds in when the transformer explodes), but you really need to listen to the young girl samantha in the background completely lose it! (i'll bet she is a blast to hang out with during an evacuation...)

The Video Went Here
But It Was Replaced
By Another, Not As
Silly Thingy So You'll
Just Have To Take My
Word On It, It Was
Funny. But Now Its Gone.

finally, a few mp3s of some stormy music, here for seven days or whenever the wind stops... via yousendit.

the wizard of oz - cyclone (extended version)
r.e.m. - white tornado
sonny boy williamson II - the sky is crying
lowell george - can't stand the rain
roy brown - let the four winds blow
the kinks - there's a change in the weather
the rolling stones - gimme shelter (live '73)
dr. john - storm warning
bob dylan - shelter from the storm

bourbon and st. ann

2009-05-17T12:09:00.004-05:00

...on a rainy day during the french quarter fest.

Field Music - A House is Not A Home

2009-04-10T11:37:00.001-05:00

School Of Language - Rockist Video

2009-04-10T11:23:00.001-05:00

The Week That Was - Learn to Learn

2009-04-10T11:20:00.001-05:00

you say you want a revolution?

2009-03-24T21:45:00.014-05:00

once upon a time...

there were four guys, they had a band, they made music. they did it for awhile, for a long time, (if you include time stuck together).

and by 1968 they got tired of it all, and themselves.

in june of that year one of them brought a song into the studio called 'revolution'. he wanted it to be the next single, but the version recorded was 'too slow', (according to sources). so, he made another version, and that was released as the double a-side of 'hey jude'.

this, my friends, is the ever-sought after 1st 'slow' version of 'revolution', (including the second half which was truncated into revolution 9, minus the yoko diary blathering), in all its mono glory.

it is a ten plus minute wonder of slow and pre-emptive chaos... (with a band in lock-step!)

but only for 7 days or the amount of downloads it takes to lose it.

the beatles - revolution (take 20 remix 1 speed corrected)

blue sky drive

2008-05-16T21:41:00.005-05:00

well, it has been a long time, hasn't it? this lil wreck has been busy doin' lots of things as of late, writing tunes, makin' viddys and generally being a nuisance on other areas of the nets. i know, i know, i really should pay more attention to this old abandoned blog, but what the hell...

things around the metry wreckhouse are now in remote mode. we've all settled in quite comfortably here since the move, everyone is busy working and /or going to school/daycare... or in my case, just takin' up space in this place. it's really not hard to get in a groove in this town. they don't call it the big easy for nothing.

the above viddy is one of the things poppin' outta my head lately. i had it up and around for awhile, but was never happy with it. so i stripped it down to the chassis and gave it a complete overhaul. so i feel better now...

and for all aspiring stars out there, (or if you just want to hear some great music from around the world), you really should go to len amsterdam's great music hosting site, whitby shores.

the metry wrecks seemed to have found a home there, they love the tunes and viddys and even have neil young as a blog buddy. you really need to check it out, now!

ok, ciao!

spoon at treasure island september 16, 2007

2008-01-14T22:07:00.000-06:00

one of this space's favorite groups of late is austin, texas' very own 'spoon'. britt daniels and band have the best catalogue of smart, concise, stripped-down music as anyone else out there in this big ol' (yet evah shrinking) rock-n-roll world right now. their latest release, the baby-gibberishly titled 'ga ga ga ga ga', was our pick as best album of '07 (if we would've had a list that is)... and very much far ahead of all the rest. spoon are a band making music that continues to defy labels and flirt with the boundaries of your average four piece pop ensemble..
(this w'rooms #1 song for awhile has been 'the beast and dragon, adored' from 'gimme fiction', it reminds us of plastic ono lennon around '70, what with it's plaintive cry for rock-n-roll, lost and gone forever, and the silly, fruitless pursuit thereof... ahhh, the infected voice, the staccato guitar, the rumblin' pianny, the shaky drunkin' rhythm... while all the time explaining why it keeps getting done...

'...I got a feelin, it didn't come free.
I got a feelin, and then it got to me.
When you don't feel it, it shows, and they tear out your soul...
And when you believe, they call it rock and roll,
And when you believe, they call it rock and roll.')

ga(x5) is sparse, hook-laden econo-pop; very tight, very addicting and sensibly un-ordinary. each song is a varied piece of funky genius, containing undeniable danceable trippy dittys and finger snappin' fun, all in an easy to handle 40 minute package. (the version we have has an extra cd of spoon in a more experimental vein, which is ok by me, the more the better...)

from the fractured synchno-pop opening anthem of 'don't make me a target', the neo-soul treatment on 'you got yr cherry bomb', the goofy, skippy feeling 'don't ya evah', the poppy hook-heavy 'the underdog' ... this record is a maturing continuation of the catchy unorthodox style that each of the proceeding albums had hinted at. it all comes together here. 'ga (x5)' is a gorgeously understated masterpiece.

trust me, you need this cd...

and just to show ya'll that it's not all studio wizardry, here is a show by brett and the boys from the bay area last fall. the sound is very board worthy, the band is tight and vibrant, and mr. daniels voice is in it's best cracked-falsetto, whiskey-soaked whimsical mode. it seemed like a great show and enjoyed by all in attendance... those lucky bastards...

... presented for your approval and available in mp3 for a week or so, by way of yousendit:

spoon at the treasure island music festival
september 16, 2007

1. Black Like Me
2. Anything You Want
3. Don't Make Me a Target
4. They Never Got You
5. I Summon You
6. The Ghost of You Lingers
7. Don't You Evah
8. I Turn My Camera On
9. The Beast And Dragon, Adored
10. The Underdog
11. You Got Yr Cherry Bomb
12. My Mathematical Mind
13. My Little Japanese Cigarette Case
14. Quincy Punk Episode

go get it!

...now all i need is a crew...

it's my fuckin' christmas!

2007-12-19T16:54:00.000-06:00

just to clear the air before this starts, i am a reformed catholic and unorthodox pagan, born of devout christians and believe in true christian values. as i grew up christmas time was all about getting things, giving things and spending time with friends and family, and oh yeah, being especially nice to everyone you meet. we didn't dwell on the jesus stuff too much, maybe at church on christmas morn, (or in catechism, which i liked because of the history aspect of the bible, not really the flashy uber-religious context), but not a whole lot as i remember. neither did my friends, family, classmates, or most people i'd meet on the street. we all knew what it meant and dealt with it in our own ways. we weren't overtly religious and recognized that maybe not everyone else had the same beliefs as we did. it was always just a real fun time of year, with everyone included... or at least that how i remember it.

but now what the fuck is wrong with these people, you know, the ones who are so afraid that their christmas is being assailed by an organized assault they scream and rant and rave like a child left coal in his stocking. this has been simmering for a while now, with the 'bill oh-reallys' yapping about 'the war on christmas' and how the left is trying to take all the crosses and commandments off of public lands and bullying stores about how they want them to appeal to their customers... and on and on and on...

i hate exclusiveness, have always avoided clubs, fraternities, orders, lodges, religions or anything that had 'us and them' stamped in the fine print, (or as groucho once said, 'i'd never join a club that would have me as a member'). i mean, it's ok if ya wanna go be a sheep, walk lock-step and follow the pack, as long as you keep to yourself and don't try to win me with hallow arguments as to why your club is better than the others, i won't subscribe to your religion. but now these right-wing nut-case evangelicals are downright scary. their attitude of 'it's my fucking christmas!' is outta control. what unmitigated gall of these people to try and tell me how to celebrate the season. it ain't even their holiday by rights, it really belongs to the pagans, (and we know what they think of those heretics). the winter solstice has been celebrated by cultures all over the world for eons before christ was supposedly born, (which, don't be shocked now, was not on dec. 25th).

now, i don't mean to be pissin' on nobody's holiday, but they started this crap. they want war, they got it. i am all for trashing everything; the obsession of the over-lighted tree, the constant inundation of inane songs sung by tone-deaf singers, the endless, boring, old slogans, the stupid movies and lame t.v. specials, the repetitive stream of crass commercialism and all it's sick pseudo-religious trimmings that truly make detestable what used to be a much more innocent season. this world is full of people who don't celebrate the holiday in the same fashion. still the christian militant fascist fanatics see any other view as a threat to their beliefs. so, they play victim, cry foul and worry themselves silly over whether its 'merry christmas' or 'happy holidays'. and what happens when each and every organized religion wants to put up their own version of the spirit of their holiday? is it a matter of might make right? that is how real wars start isn't it? no one wins in this silly debate. faith is for each person to celebrate in their soul, home or church and not to be crammed down the collective maw of everyone else... especially in the public square, or in government offices. this is not solely a christian country, it is a nation built by the hands of peoples of many beliefs. why can't we all just get along?... we should be better than this, you'd think.

'what would jesus do?' is a fond rallying cry, but a damned few so-called christians rarely do anything resembling the teachings christ. his was a message of tolerance and moderation, of love thy neighbor and helping one another get by... not having crusades for oil using the blood of the poor to finance it, greedy corporate christian wealth that neglects the unfortunate, and mall-sized christmas specials that breed cultural divisiveness. have yourself a merry little christmas is now moot, it's buy more, spend more and just do it my way and we will win this war with them that are different from us... get real, no one is gonna take christ out of christmas, you have that, just don't act like it is the only reason for the season... the reason's in your heart. i don't think the birthday boy would be proud of what it has become. it's just silly the way these people think, as if they do. one drive around the neighborhood here proves their so-called-spirit is alive and well in suburban new orleans, (s.a. says she has never seen so many houses decorated in her life, and i gotta admit it sure seems like the most to me also).

i just wish we could all get along, even if only for one stupid day...

...and if that wasn't bad enuff, the republi-cons are using faith as a major litmus test as to who is most qualified to run this country for them. i dunno know about you, but these last seven years, with a man who was hand-picked by these fruitcakes, is more than enuff. i nearly threw up spiked eggnog out of my nose when i saw huckabee's, (sounds like what you do when you swallow a flying insect), christmas message, (he is the savior flavor de jour for the 'us' guys). i tell ya, every american really needs to see this video, but not for the reasons they want... and you want this guy to be your latex salesman? i hope he is gonna be their next right-hand-of-god, he is truly just too good to believe. he thinks he is so close to heaven he'll probably try to fill his cabinet with the 12 apostles... (the guy just seems like a snake oil salesman to me; sweet talkin', smarmy and not to be trusted).

whew... i think i am thru here, i know i stepped on some toes with this holiday rant (i hope so at least), but my feet hurt already from all this bru-ha-ha, so let's just all try to get along this year, eh? we are doing our part, by enjoying the festivus thingy at home with our pole amongst friends and family, (we're still not checking faith credentials to get in, so come one, come all!), and celebrating the season like the drunken pagans we ought to be... bah humbug!

(here is the real subliminal message from the huck, and it's a lot scarier than 'paul is dead, paul is dead')

also, in the spirit of the stealin' of the over-hyped/priced holidays we offer these tidbits of mirth and detriment, in mp3, thru festivus at least, by way of yousendit:

the sonics - i don't belive in christmas
the damed - there ain't no santa claus
the kinks - father christmas
hanoi rocks - dead by christmas
venom - black christmas
tom waits - christmas card from a hooker in minneapolis
sparks - thank god it's not christmas
billy idol - yellin' at the christmas tree
the vandals - a gun for christmas
the refreshments - i can't have a merry christmas
sex pistols - punk rock christmas
the ramones - punk rock christmas
the black halos - homeless for christmas
danny elfman - kidnap the sandy claws

...to everyone everywhere, just hold true to what the season means to you!
and a happy merry celebrations to all...
now if ya'll excuse me i still got presents to wrap!

everywhere it's christmas...(again)

2007-12-16T20:02:00.000-06:00

*** back by popular demand, in time for this xmas, is this repost of the 12-1-05 entry...
(with corrections and additions)

...for seven years the beatles released an annual christmas record, on flexi-discs for members of the fan club. it began in 1963 as the four of them sat around a microphone in abbey road studios to record a thank you message, and by '66 they were making it a small epic, of sorts, using audio skits and new songs. for '68 and '69 the beatles weren't even doing it together at all, just piecemealing stuff they each recorded at home, then handing it over to kenny everett (the bbc dj) to edit for release. in december 1970, after the band broke up, apple records released all 7 christmas flexi-records on one vinyl l.p., again, only to the fan club.

for years all of this was really hard to find on any medium (i was lucky to have a friend whose sister belonged to the fan club and had them all, including the l.p., of which she would not part with but let me tape, so i at least it in some form, which was spread as far as i could). now the price for any of the original records is unreal, as you can imagine. but thanks to the wonders of the internet you can find these lil gems on torrent or other various places, (i found a nice cd of the set, along with the other christmas tunes done by each after the split, on ebay a while back, but i'd love to own the l.p. in vinyl before i die)...

***(well, i finally did get the lp right after the original post, the real apple fan club one... heheheheheeee, she treats me so good!)

...the beatles were always big on christmas. they would plan album and single releases for the holidays and even had a kinda off-broadway christmas show in the early years. and as mentioned in a previous post, it meant a guaranteed record under the tree on the morning of december 25th each year. i still miss those times, but at least we've still got the christmas records to fill the house with beatle-christmas cheer when it comes, at the end of every year ...

here are the very hard to find fan club flexi-disc records on mp3 download for you to put under the tree for that special santa-beatle on your list ...

***(these links are now thru yousendit, so that you can save 'em, since the site i was using/hacking flipped 'em to video streams on youtube... i may add links to those later for ya'll (or you can go here now and save me the trouble)... in the meantime, get 'em while they're available, for 100 downloads or the next week or so, or you can just listen to the audio stream to enjoy anytime at all as long as you like... so, garry crimble to all and getty babel dear christmas!

The Beatles Christmas Record (mp3)
(audio stream)

Another Beatles Christmas Record (mp3)
(audio stream)

The Beatles Third Christmas Record (mp3)
(audio stream)

Pantomime:Everywhere It's Christmas (mp3)
(audio stream)

Christmas Time Is Here Again (mp3)
(audio stream)

The 1968 Christmas Record (mp3)
(audio stream)

The Beatles Seventh Christmas Record (mp3)
(audio stream)

The Beatles Fan Club Christmas L.P.

*** and here are some lost (and found, i guess) beatles christmas bits that have been dug up in the last few, in mp3, once more by way of yousendit:

another take of the '64 message

the lost '65 christmas message

(a very long, strange and un-xmas-like piece of bric-a-brac indeed)

an outtake from the '67 message

...and finally, for the completists and fanatics,
a beatles christmas desktop theme

not another xmas mix... mix

2007-12-14T12:02:00.000-06:00

so, i know this is christmas time. s.a. asked me to make a few copies of an mp3 cd of christmas music for her and all her workmates at the road home thingy. i started by digging up as much as i could, like every cd in the archives (quite a few), and finding an enormous torrent file on the magical net, (it's only a mere 10 gigabytes of the most varied assortment of christmas mp3 cheer one could hope to find beneath the tree, including a complete set of the old firestone christmas lps from my early childhood... too sick).

after weeding out the obvious klunkers, (such as the entire 6 cds of nordic muzak and the celine-type crap), picking out the obvious winners, (i think all the standards are known), and incorporating some odd bits here and there, (some more odd than others), the cd had turned into a 193 track monster.

then came the fun...

sorting, remixing and recording, in all about a weeks worth of toil and labor. needless to say i am so burned out on christmas music that i almost went into canniption fits looking for a tree with the little lady at home-desperate the other day, just hearing the burl warbling 'it's a holly jolly christmas' in my state is almost tantamount to christmas waterboarding...

but, seeing as this space was vacant last season, (we had better fish to fry), we thought it'd be nice to let ya'll in for some of that old odd assortment of mp3 holiday cheer, for a week, at the most, thru yousendit...

sonny boy williamson - sonny boy's christmas blues
tommy ridgley - please come home for christmas
t-rex - christmas box
james brown - santa claus, santa claus
brian wilson - what i really want for christmas (for s.a.)
louis armstrong - 'zat you santa claus?
lowell fulson - lonesome christmas
r.e.m. - christmas griping
rubberband - jinglebell rock
pink floyd - merry xmas song
the beatles - 1964 xmas message (outtake)

same as they was, before they was.

2007-11-11T14:16:00.000-06:00

a new improved edition of the 1965 beatles' film 'help!' was just released on dvd, all cleaned up, in a nice, slick 2 disc package, sounding and looking much better than i do after all these years... what a godsend. we needed some new kinda beatle stuff, and i guess this'll hold us until they get around to releasing 'let it be' on dvd for the 1st time.

the first time i saw help! was when it came out in '65. we were living in niles, illinoise at the time, i was 9 and my mom drove us to the local cinema. i don't remember what i was thinking on the way in, but when we emerged, my life had changed. i recall having the most euphoric feeling, like i floated out of the picture show. i wanted to be a beatle so bad and i just couldn't get enough of the music, i wanted to make that music (and still do!). it seemed they always had so much fun making music and living life. it seemed like a good job to me.

for years it was ocassionaly shown on t.v., all chopped for commercials and time constraints. one time i caught it and made an audio tape for my friends and i to play endlessly while imagining the movie and memorizing the dialog. finally it came out on vhs, and later a limited release on dvd during the 90s. the dvd copies have been pretty rare and cost quite alot, well, they used to. but the earlier dvds of 'help!' were made from old prints of the film. they looked faded and washed out. still, it was all there was to be had... 'til now that is.

we watched the new version last night and were in complete awe at how vibrant and alive the movie is now. the color seems to jump off of the screen, as when they are all in their shared, multi-colored apartment, and the surround sound is full, crisp and lush. and even after seeing this movie at least a hundred times i was now picking out many things that had slipped by before. it just looked and sounded perfect on the big 42" and 5.1 .

the 2nd disc of the set contains the 30 min. 'the beatles in help!, (which has been bootlegged for many a moon), a look at how the movie was restored, (unbelievable!), and some other 'help!' stuff... but the film is the real star here. there is also a deluxe edition with a few goodies like the script, a poster and photo booklet to jack the price, (tho i would like to cop the poster), but it is all just dressing, it's the movie that everyone really needs.

a rarely seen version of 'help!' from some brit t.v. show...

brian epstein's 1965 podcasts

a monty python's look back at help

a few hard to find gems from the beatles during their 'help!' era, in mp3, for a little while, via yousendit:

help! (takes 1, 2 & 5)
help! (takes 8 & 9)
daytripper (takes 1, 2 & 3)

and now, the complete beatles' set at shea stadium, august 15, 1965, again in mp3, from the original line recordings (with minimal crows noise)... this is the real deal, with the songs that were omitted from the t.v. special release in '66, 'she's a woman' and 'everybody's tryin' to be my baby':

the beatles and the great concert at shea!...

ed sullivan's intro
twist and shout
she's a woman
i feel fine
dizzy miss lizzy
ticket to ride
everybody's tryin' to be my baby
can't buy me love
baby's in black
act naturally
a hard days night
help!
i'm down

across the universe

2007-10-29T21:17:00.000-05:00

last week was me and s.a.'s 6th anniversary week, so she took her vacation for the duration and we started it all by spending most of the day at the movies. we caught the early show of 'across the universe' and after a bit of shopping and mexican food strutted to the theatre again to see 'michael clayton'.

george clooney is really at his best in '...clayton', (he is reminding us more and more of cary grant with each film he does). a few people i know don't like clooney because of his stint on the riveting t.v. drama 'er', citing his uncanny ability to look wooden while reading off of cue-cards. i wouldn't know about that, i never saw 'er', but over the years his resume', both on and off the screen, is pretty impressive. ever since 'oh, brother...' we have been hooked. this is probably his best dramatic turn yet, (and yes, there is always 'batman and robin' to compare to...), and we are now waiting patiently for his next foray with the coen brothers, something with brad pitt called 'burn before reading'.

we've been looking forward to seeing 'across the universe' on the big screen since catching the trailer on t.v. a few months before last months release. and it was definitely worth the wait. most of the reviews have been positive, but we don't put too much creedence into the opinions of lessers. so, with more than a bit of foreboding, we were at least half skeptic of another 'sgt. pepper' train-wreck. but it turns out to be one fun ride of a movie. granted, one must have to be fairly familiar with the beatles' catalogue to truly get it, (but who, here in the beginnings of the 21st century, doesn't know at least 'na na na nana na na'... in any language), but even that shouldn't deter anyone from enjoying this wonderful bit of sensory candy.

the story is quite simple, sometime in the sixties a young liverpool dockworker, (jude), steals into america in search of his father, an american ex-g.i. who was stationed in england during the war. he meets a dissillusioned ivy-leaguer, (max), falls in love with his sister lucy, journeys across the u.s.a. and lives out the mid-20th century counter-culture dream/nightmare, all to the backbeat of the beatles. oh, and along the way are almost every 60's cliche' imaginable, the jimi hendrix-ish guitarist named jo-jo, the joplinesque 'sadie' and too many other people and things to notice in just one viewing. maybe the plot sometimes gets blurred and there's not a lot of character development, but the joy of the music and the vibrant tone of the film making more than make up for it's minor shortfalls.

here are a few mp3s from the movie soundtrack and some other goodies too, by way of yousendit for a limited time only...

bono and secret machines - i am the walrus
joe cocker - come together
secret machines - flying
bono and secret machines - lucy in the sky with diamonds

the beatles - across the universe (SI onto take 8)
the beatles - aerial tour instrumental (mono mix)
the beatles - blue jay way (overdub session mix)
john and ringo - chi chi's
john and ringo - breakdown

'across the universe' movie trailer
(quicktime video)

Why Guitars are Better than Women…

2007-10-23T08:43:00.000-05:00

1- Guitars don’t get pregnant.
2- You can play your guitar any time of the month.
3- Guitars don’t have parents.
4- Guitars don’t whine… unless you want them to.
5- You can share your guitar with your friends.
6- Guitars don’t care how many other guitars you’ve played
7- Guitars don’t care how many other guitars you have.
8- Guitars don’t care if you look at other guitars.
9- Guitars don’t care if you buy guitar magazines.
10-You’ll never hear, “Surprise, you are going to proud father of a new guitar!” unless you go out to buy one yourself.
11- If your guitar is flat you can fix it.
12- Your guitar doesn’t care if you never listen to it.
13- Your guitar won’t care if you leave up the toilet seat.
14- You don’t have to be jealous of the guy who works on your guitar.
15- If you say bad things to your guitar, you don’t have to apologize before you play it again.
16- You can play your guitar as long as you want and it won’t get sore.
17- You can stop playing your guitar as soon as you want and it won’t get frustrated.
18- Your parents won’t remain in touch with your old guitar after you dump it.
19- Guitars don’t get headaches.
20- Guitars don’t insult you if you’re a bad player.
21- Your guitar never wants a night out with the other guitars.
22- Guitars don’t care if you’re late.
23- You don’t have to take a shower before you play your guitar.
24- If your guitar doesn’t look good you can refinish it or get new parts.
25- You can play your guitar the first time you meet it, without having to take it to dinner, see a movie, or meet its mother.
26- The only protection you have to wear when playing your guitar is a decent thumb pick.
27- When in mixed company, you can talk about what a great time you had the last time you played your guitar.

...and those are just a few reasons i have had more guitars than girlfriends over the years...

and on that note, here are a few guitar-themed tunes, some pretty old, some very new, for ya'll to shimmy, shake and bake the day away (by way of yousendit for a week or 100 downloads, whichever goes first)...

prince - guitar
camper van beethoven - guitar hero
steve earle - guitar town
the shadows - guitar tango
radiohead - anybody can play guitar
carl perkins - guitar boogie
xtc - my brown guitar
eddie lang - blue guitars
spineshank - while my guitar gently weeps
lonnie johnson - guitar blues
the clash - jail guitar doors
tom jones - ten guitars
eddie bond - broke my guitar
frank zappa - my guitar wants to kill your momma (live)
johhny cash & june carter - long legged guitar pickin' man
ray stevens - guitarzan
cake - the guitar man

beat rodeo

2007-10-16T19:33:00.000-05:00

beat rodeo was a rock-pop-a-billy band of the 80's led by one steve almaas. i had a thing back then for anything connected to r.e.m./mitch easter (of 'let's active') and heard that almaas' first e.p. 'beat rodeo' was of that ilk. so, like i am so apt to do, when i first saw it i grabbed it with out even hearing it, trusting only word of mouth and a pretty cool cover, (i have found much great music that way).

recorded at drive-in studios in north carolina, with easter and richard barone (of the bongos, who were also very influential on the east coast pop scene) filling in as the band, almaas' first solo effort is such a lil jewel of rock-n-roll attitude that it amazes me how this shit just gets lost, then and now.

this e.p. is one of my most favorite pieces of cardboard covered pvc that i own. the songs are tight and concise, sounding alot like the beatles when they riff on carl perkins. quirky and twangy and somewhat geeky but infectious as hell. with easter and borone on the boards the sound is squeeky clean and up front. this is minimal rock-n-roll at it's best. echoes of buddy holly abound all around then it's all over much too quick.

so here is something deliciously unavailable almost anywhere else in this world, (and that's a sad fact), by way of yousend it, for a week or so...

what's the matter
do you mean it
no one
the new girl

farewell mr music

2007-10-11T20:25:00.000-05:00

it feels like a good time to shake off this blanket of malaise. seems that everytime i got up the will to jump-start this silly blog some thing would come up... usually another death of pet, friend or family. i've been so shell-shocked that this space became not so important in the scheme of things as just spending more time doing other stuff, like dwelling endlessly about love and loss.
well, that kind of thinking can either sink ya or swim ya. and for the last few months i've been sinking, a mr. mom decline without the funny bits. stay at home, lock the doors, draw the blinds, unhook the phone and stare blankly at maudlin melodramas on tcm til late in the night... well, at least i ain't drinkin' or druggin' my way down. (and thank god for s.a., my guiding light thru the dark... i don't know if i'd be here today)

but the weather here is nice again, fall is about to fall, and i'm starting to feel a lil better about things in general. i may even delve into some of the finer points of what's been happening later, but for now i'll play it easy... otherwise this space would resemble the obit section of a paper. enuff of that for now. i am also bowing to the groundswell of dissent i get for not doing this thing for so long. i hear ya, we'll just see how long it'll last... enuff about all that and more about me, with some shameless self-promotion...

so, as of late i've been piddlin' about with the old 4-track, dusting off cassettes and dredging up tunes that have been laying wasting away. it has taken awhile but i've loaded a ton of songs, track by track, to the master computer, HAL, and started to goof on them. two very dis-similar songs have jumped out so far... one is an efficient lil pop ditty about a true event and the other is '(you had to open) pandora's box', a psychedelic-ish tune written to some words of warning from brian z (of 'living to die' or 'bolt upright', as i remember 'em). but more on the latter later, (wait, shouldn't that be 'more on the later latter'... ?)

anyhow, first up is the poptune. 'random samples of love (seen as boyfriend replicas)' is the result of a raffey's gig in chances, (a bar in metry that we kinda owned), where my cousin f.a.'s ex-wife marched in with a guy that looked and acted just like him. it would have been funny even if it weren't for the fact that it happened quite a few times before. but for some reason f.a. had people mention the point to his face over and over all night and he was getting quite pissed about it. i found it all amusing, went home and wrote a song about it. there's been a demo of it for a long time, but it was never done proper 'til now. f.a. loved the tune but hated the line about 'same bad taste in clothes', oh well... i swear i heard that from someone.

"random samples of love seen as boyfriend replicas"
(m. a. sample)

here she comes with another, and i'll tell ya what i know.
they all look like each other, even johnny thinks it's so...

* and all her friends think its grand, she's with her replica man,
and they look alot like you, now i'm not the one to talk,
but i thought you ought to know.

i start seeing double when she finds where you're at.
she must be looking for trouble if she's walking in with that...

*
they've got the same walk, the same talk,
the same bad taste in clothes...
they use the same lines that you used,
as if she didn't know...

so, this is dedicated to frank. my brother from another, my worse half. i miss him deeply and daily. love you oye'

that's all for now, i think one of the dog's is diggin' under the fence again. gotta go put the stop to that. more about the rest later... (it does kinda feel good to do this again... plus i really need to get off my ass again and do something, anything.)
ciao, for now.

the duchess of dixieland

2007-01-06T17:15:00.000-06:00

tuesday, january 2nd started cloudy, cold and dismal, with a hint of rain in the air. by noon the clouds broke and revealed a beautiful sky. it turned into an unusually glorious day for a funeral. it was the day we laid my mom to rest.

the duchess of dixieland was buried at greenwood cemetary in new orleans amongst all the trappings of a traditional jazz funeral. she was laid into the spot of earth where all the other members of the dukes of dixieland who had passed before her lay, as is the way it is done in the easy. family always ends up with family here, even in the family plot. the names on the headstone are a litany of the players in one of the most influencial musical families in jazz history. as of that day the circle is complete.

elizabeth ann owens would have been 73 this march 22nd. she was always known as betty and had the fullest, most amazing life that anyone could. her father was an engineer who had help design and build the spillways and her mother was a homemaker who doted on her four daughters. betty was born in baton rouge but the family soon moved to uptown new orleans where they would remain. it was apparent early on that betty was something special. she was singing professionally by the age of 13 in a hillbilly band and appeared often on a local radio show, even garnering her own fan club.

but her real insipiration was billie holliday and by 1949 she was belting out jazz tunes as lead singer of the up and coming dukes of dixieland. the dukes were led by brothers frank and freddie assunto and were one of the hottest young jazz bands in the city. the band worked hard and played often, becoming a national success by the early 50's. in march of 1955 betty and freddie were married. soon after the whole band moved to a still young las vegas, nevada to play an extended engagement at the new thunderbird hotel. they called vegas home from then on, while conquering the world playing their infectious brand of new orleans dixieland jazz.

betty had quit singing for the band on a regular basis soon after the move but continued to travel the one niters around the country. dragging two kids along in a station wagon full of drums and gear was home for her until freddie died in 1966 of cancer. she hung on in vegas for three years before moving her and her three kids back to the new orleans suburb of metairie. on numerous occasions she would go to pete fountain's club where he would always ask betty to come up and do a few numbers. to see the faces of that meek couple from nebraska when she belted out 'a hard man is good to find' was worth the price of admission.

her voice was always in demand with many bands during the 70's. murphy campo and connie jones often tried to entice her back on stage for good. but i think her heart was just not in it since my father died. she didn't want to have to do it, just whenever she felt like it.

she loved metry and that is where she lived for 31 years with all her family and friends until experiencing a major heart attack at a family thanksgiving gathering in 2000 (of course, she had to go out in front of a crowd). she spent the last six years disabled at trinity care in slidell. she passed away the day after christmas surrounded by her children.

but it is all that hasn't been said above that made her an amazing person. she raised three kids, alone. two beautiful, smart daughters, and me. and i was a handful. she was also mom to everyone of our friends, feeding and caring for any straggler we happened to drag home, making them feel as tho they were always part of the family.

although mom had quit singing professionally, she would belt out a song at the drop of a hat, or as she would love to say, 'i do 15 minutes everytime the refridgerator door opens'... and she did. she loved throwing parties where everybody was singing old favorites. and she was singing the loudest. she was always the center of attention at any gathering, the focal spot where most people gravitate because something interesting is happening. and with betty it usually was.

in the few years before becoming ill she would get up in front of the large group of friends and relatives eating the annual thanksgiving dinner at cafe degas and sing a couple of songs with the tony green trio. her eyes would light up and she would break out that infectious smile and proceed to sound like an angel from up on high. well, maybe an angel with a gravely gin soaked-voice singin' 'a hard man is good to find', but still an angel. and everyone there knew it was something special. and it was.

warm and giving, yet betty didn't suffer fools lightly. she was sharp of wit and tongue and not afraid of using either whenever she felt like it. outspoken and outlandish. she sure was the major influence on my outlook on life, her open spirit, her love of life and living it to the fullest, and loudest. it seems most people have their own story about her, or some memory of something wild she had done, i hear them still, and quite a few not fit for print i may add. yeah, she was something else and gonna really be missed by many, many people.

well, i could go on and on, but i wanna pass along some of the stuff she did...
my blue heaven

neon love

neon love (at home in '75)

darkness on the delta (banned)

i also want to thank everyone involved with all the great things that were said and done for the family that day. we will never forget the love that was shown... and shared.

i love and miss you mom!

what a long, strange couple of months its been

2006-11-12T23:09:00.000-06:00

well, we finally made it back to metry for good (minus the frogs, they are in a little roadside grave outside of salina, kansas... poor things must've died pining for reno). so it goes...

this month back home has been exhausting, messy and sometimes frustrating, but the house is gettin' better every day. too bad this space has been another casualty of the busy times we've had. some things just needed to get done and this blog just wasn't one of them. we'll try to pick up some of the slack here but until then i guess a bit of catch-up is in order...

first off, we must thank the gods of drunks, dogs and children for getting us home unscathed, reasonably sane and all in one piece. the trip was virtually uneventful, but after doing it 3 times in the last year s.a. and i have that part down pretty good. seems the dogs had the worst of it, they yowled and cried all the way home, while kimmy and the p-man were quite civilized for the 3 and a 1/2 days it took to make the 2500 miles and were quite a pleasure to travel with. s.a. and i, on the other hand had our obligatory 'starbuck's moment', kissed and made up, then made it home. all in all it was a great way to end the road trips of my life (unless i feel the need to travel, which hits way too often...)

it has been very crazy around here for the last month. the house is still in need of a lot of work, tho the girls are painting and fixing up at an incredible rate. it is slow going in a lot of ways. we missed the cable guy the first monday back and got a three week penalty. then he goes and hooks up a fucked-up box and we had to wait another week for that. we didn't really miss the cable or the internet much at all. we were just too busy/tired to care.

i have finally got the w'room up and running, to a point (computer, tv/dvd and record player are go... the studio is kinda slogging along). everything is in but needs to be organized and wired, and that's always my favorite part, which is probably why i save it for last. this w'room could also use a good dose of paint, but the stark white is much better than the gloss black it was when the pornographers rented the place. and we're still hearing horror stories from the neighbors about those guys.

all in all life is looking better, tho the r.a. is still kicking my ass too much (in fact i need to do a shot right now), but soon the wear and tear of the move will go away and things will really brighten up.

damn, it's great to be home!

--- and besides feeling good about being back home there are a few other things lately that make us smile... the saints (altho they lost this week, so did hot 'lanta), the hornets (losing but started strong), it seems the evil empire is in it's last throes and the new beatles' record, 'love', is coming out real soon (it should be on the door step in about a week)...

we'll get into the grimy details later about the record, but from first listening 'love' is a very interesting addition to the beatle's catalogue. four tracks are available for your pleasure on 'the beatles.com' but i'll dump 'em here for ya to enjoy at your leisure, available for a little while via yousendit...

strawberry fields forever
octopus' garden
while my guitar gently weeps
lady madonna

live! from new orleans (part deux)

2006-09-28T19:11:00.000-05:00

well, what a blast monday was. we're here in reno and it has still taken all week for the glow to even start to wear down. in new orleans it must be electric... just making it a bit easier to get back to the dirty work once again (times-picayune columnist chris rose gives us an idea).

in case you missed it monday was new orleans' coming out party. the uber-arch enemy of the saints were coming to town. the atlanta falcons were 2 and 0, the saints were 2 and 0. they got the superdome all fixed up and invited the whole world to watch. we sucked-up the hype all afternoon on espn, looking for faces of friends in the sea of people. it all felt like the build-up before a superbowl game. man was it worth it! the bayou boys whooped the dirty birds 23-3, and, for this week, own the nfl south. not only beating them but making vick and company look useless. this was not their day. it was ours. they may go on to bigger and better things, september 25th will always be our day, and god did we need this.

i don't think anyone really cared if the saints won or lost. we were just so damn happy to see that beautiful building back up and running... but as has been noted in a few places, there were things that didn't seem quite right. the crowd seemed very vanilla, not at all like the regular mix in the dome on any given sunday during the fall. i guess that just reflects how things are down there. there are a great many things there not right yet.

but for one day the city got to blow off some steam, and was rewarded for it by a fantastic football game, the likes of which had not been seen in new orleans in a very, very long time.

of course there was another story monday. u2 and green day (plus the rebirth and new birth brass bands) ripped through a 9 min. medley just before the game that was heartfelt, a bit political and all out fun (but what was that 'house of the rising dome' thingy?).

we are almost outta here and on the road to the easy. the house is rented, the remnants are being packed as i peck and the trip starts on october 11th. the energy around the wreckroom is focused... get the fuck home! so i guess we will...

...and just in case you missed all of this somehow...
...and if that ain't enough, here's the bands doing a photo shoot on the abbey road crossing...oh yeah, and the live mp3 of the show at the dome, ripped and posted on yousendit for a lil bit o' time:

u2 and green day - the saints are coming (new orleans superdome 09-25-06)
(i haven't got it yet, but the single can be appropriated from rhapsody. the proceeds go to a great cause and the song rocks... i'm sure i'll need to do this real soon.)

and of all things, naming rights for the dome, pink taco dome? as if the talk of making the dome into a bowl of wheaties wasn't enough...

live! from new orleans...

2006-09-21T20:55:00.000-05:00

during our trip home last month s.a. and i sat with my dear friend, the reverend mr. freeze, and reminisced about the good old days for a few hours or so. s.a. just sat and giggled as we dredged thru our collective memories of all the shit that happened at concerts we had attended (if i had told her alone she'd would have thought me making it all up). she found it all very amusing and quite unbelivable, even tho i have played numerous shows for her claiming i was there. she still seems a little skeptical, but more willing to accept it as truth now that it has been corroborated. also, i may have mentioned it in here once or twice the fact that we attended nearly every concert in the greater new orleans area from 1970 until... well, until it all seemed to peter out.

almost all of those shows are preserved on tape. mr freeze would get his trusty sony recorder in concerts everytime, usually by using subversive and underhanded means (well he didn't get away with it everytime, he did get caught once or twice, but somehow still got a tape of the show. he is amazing like that). his list of live recordings is unbelievable and every now and then he surprises me with a copy of a show we went to that i forgot all about, but there i am, all over the tape, yelling and being a rock-n-roll fool... ahhh, those were the days.

a few shows were truly historical. the sex pistols next-to-last gasp on jan 8, '78 in baton rouge was one of those unforgettable events (documented here in the w'room awhile back) as was the wailers show at a warehouse a few months later (disscused here). to hear this stuff all these years later just brings back a rush of memories and goose bumps, just knowing that i was there while all this was happening.

back then it seemed every band, big and small, came thru the easy. new orleans was the one city most of them claimed they loved to play. the place most cited was a warehouse on tchoupitoulas st. it was a real warehouse, a huge rickety old building with a leaky roof, no air and just nasty enough to make ya wanna go back next week to catch a low priced rock and roll show. it was always too hot in summer and too cold in the winter, but man did that place rock.

the crowds were always loud, boisterous, and usually all drunk and hopped up on something or another, as they were in almost every other venue in the city like the municipal auditorium, the dome or any club (tho the pistols show was the most outrageous concert ever, and that was in baton rouge). it certainly was a blast then. i can't see that scene ever happening again, anywhere... ever again. it's a whole new world now, and never as much fun as it was tho. but i still have the shows to listen to...

...i know i promised the reverend i wouldn't let these shows go as a whole, but i can't help using pieces, some of this is just too good not to share. so here is a taste of just a few of the concerts i was fortunate to see (if ya listen close i am the one with the biggest mouth, mr. freeze is on the whistle), in mp3 for a limited time via yousendit:

the new york dolls at independence hall, baton rouge, march 1974:
trash
the new york dolls at ballin' jax, new orleans, march 12, 1976 (1st set):
personality crisis/looking for a kiss

the kinks at tulane university, new orleans, feb 20, 1976:
alcohol
lola

the sex pistols at the kingfish, baton rouge, jan 8, 1978:
god save the queen
anarchy in the u.k.

bob marley and the wailers at a warehouse, new orleans, may 7, 1978:
kaya
get up stand up
lively up yourself

the ramones at old man rivers, new orleans, jan 14,1979:
blitzkrieg bop
surfin' bird
do ya wanna dance

the saints are coming

2006-09-14T21:51:00.000-05:00

well, a bit of cool news found today. it looks as though U2 and greenday are joining forces for a new single, a tribute to new orleans with proceeds going to music rising, the organization that u2 guitarist the edge helped start to house and support the musicians that were affected by katrina.

the song is a cover of the 1978 punk single 'the saints are coming' by the skids, an obscure scottish band known more for the fact that their guitarist, the late stuart adamson, was the hands behind the band 'big country', who had that seminal 80's hit song 'in a big country'. 'the saints' is an obscure tune to be sure (it did make #48 on the brit singles charts), but one that seems to be a great fit, for the bands and the city. dunno when it's coming out and it's not leaked yet, at least i can't find it from my usual sources. but when i get it so do you...

even better, both bands are playing on september 25th during the monday night football broadcast from the superdome in the heart of the big easy (dang, another three weeks and we'd be there too). what a great shot in the arm for the city. there is a game that night too. it doesn't even matter if the saints win, tho it would be cool to take down the falcons too... 'specially this early in the season. but that is all just a game.

the edge has been getting the musicians devastated by the hurricanes more help and attention than any other celeb, and he's getting some big names to help out. gibson guitars and president clinton have also got in on the act. gibson has built a limited edition les paul (painted like mardi gras in a flood) to donate and get proceeds for the affected musicians on the gulf coast. bill just handed them out... we should all be so lucky to do so much.

the skids - the saints are coming
the edge and friends - vertigo (preservation style) edit
big country - in a big country
greenday - american idiot (live)

other than that, we are a week closer to home, halla-fuckin-yoo-yah!

time to cut and run

2006-09-01T14:02:00.000-05:00

i trashed the post i had planned for the anniversary of that thing, it has been just too much katrina overload and i really didn't feel like adding to the mess, so to speak...

well, we decided to chuck it all in here and head for home in metry. 'casa de wreck' is humming along better than expected and this house in reno is going nowhere fast (the neighborhood is now packed with houses for sale, unlike a year ago, pre-k, when we coulda got anything we wanted, what a difference a year makes). so the girls gave their 2 week notice and that means we are outta here!

we're gonna pack up kimmy and kid, harpo, sadie, sam, 2 frogs and the cat, and everything we haven't already moved and, as they say, just do it. i think the trip home last month did it, well, that and the idea of spending another winter here maybe. we leave here in about 5 weeks and everything is all set, barring another, uh, nevermind...

it's funny how people here in reno react to the news of us going back to metry. most of them still think we are kidding, but some think us crazy and foolish (then again most of those have never been east of the rockies). yeah, we may be a bit whacked going through all this just for it to happen again... this year?... next?... in 5?..., oh well, home is where the head is, so that's where we're heading (and none too soon to suit us).

i guess it is sorta like the old west down there, or like the old south, since new orleans has always been a pretty tough town. its history is bloated with atrocities of all sorts, man made and not. it makes for a pretty resilient breed of folk too. we know nothing's very easy in the easy right now. we still got work to do as does almost everyone else we know. but we got a good feelin' about this. we feel very lucky, a lot of people still can't get back at all, or have nothing to come back to. the thought of that makes me wanna cry. it's really hard to say goodbye to new orleans.

the yats (locals to ya'll) always said the reason the city parties so much is because we're just living in a bowl, five feet below sea level, surrounded by water, and waiting for the crack. sure it's not exactly safe, but where in the world is safe?

at least with a hurricane you have a fair amount of time to get outta the way. not like living on a faultline or in tornado alley. the price of living in the easy is worth it, the food, the music, the people, the good times and even the bad times; it's all too good to give up.

we are itchin' to get back to all the little things we love about that place; grabbing beignets and cafe ole around the corner each morning, hanging out at tipitina's or snug harbour gettin' a nice dose of southern culture, or boiling crayfish and drinkin' with family and friends in the backyard watching the thunderstorms roll in on a hot afternoon... oh yeah, and po' boys anytime of the day within a walk away...

here's some recent news about the big easy:

Report: Overhaul system or New Orleans will suffer again

do you know what it means to myth new orleans

not much has changed

and a few of our favorite songs in mp3, via yousendit for less time than it takes to de-water the city that care forgot:

gary 'u.s.' bonds - new orleans
muddy waters - louisiana blues
dr. john - sweet home new orleans
dukes of dixieland - do you know what it means to miss new orleans
fats domino - walking to new orleans
tragically hip - new orleans is sinking
leadbelly - new orleans
louis armstrong and the dukes of dixieland - bourbon street parade
better than ezra - king of new orleans
elvis presley - new orleans
dire straits - planet of new orleans
rebirth brass band - new orleans
freddie cannon - way down yonder in new orleans
sonny boy williamson II - city of new orleans
tom waits - i wish i was in new orleans (in the 9th ward)
dr john - goin' back to new orleans

johnny cash on american radio circa '58

2006-08-24T20:15:00.000-05:00

for all the indie kidz and rockabilly hippies these here mp3s are an amazing bit of rock history, johnny cash and the tennessee two appearing on a few radio shows between 1958-59. these were recorded around the time johnny switched labels, from sun records to columbia, a very productive time for him. i'm unsure of the source, but it is definitely from vinyl, as the pops and clicks can attest, and probably came from an armed forces record (they really push the army lifestyle during the breaks, "...there's no obligation.").

still, it really has very good sound quality for the age (i have records a tenth this old that sound as tho someone danced on 'em, no matter how good you treat vinyl records, they scratch). the band is crisp and fresh as they bash out the first three sun singles with cash's voice sounding as good as it ever did. very nice...

this is about as good as it gets, so get it soon coz it only lasts a little while, for the getting, in mp3 via yousendit:

Country Style USA Intro
Hey Porter
I Walk The Line
“Join The Reserve For Youth Training Program” spot
Rock Island Line
So Doggone Lonesome
Country Style USA Outro

Country Style USA Intro
Folsom Prison Blues
Cry Cry Cry
“Reserve For Youth Training Program” spot
I Was There When It Happened
Get Rhythm
Country Style USA Outro

Guest Star Intro
Country Boy
Chat w/ Johnny
Don’t Take Your Guns To Town
Johnny Cash “Buy Savings Bonds” spot
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
Guest Star Outro

thanks to mr. freeze for the heads-up on this one, a very nice catch indeed... enjoy!

are we scared yet?

2006-08-21T19:05:00.000-05:00

well, we made it to a vibrant metry and got back without too much incident. in fact, the whole trip was actually great until we had to fly back to reno... via atlanta, where we spent the night at gate t-3 coz we missed the last flight out. it was totally my fault, as i brain-farted and forgot the time change (still, s.a. thought any city below the mason-dixon line was in 'southern time').

we sat in the bar and drank until they ran us out, then parked under a row of seats in front of a t.v. full of cnn, covered ourselves in found airplane blankets, and munched on the food we had brought back from the easy, (hubig pies, pralines, and man i was sorry i never tried to smuggle that po' boy back like i had wanted).

we literally had the terminal to ourselves, with not a thing to do but try and sleep. a starbucks was right there, so we loitered around waiting for it to open at 5am (their time). it seemed like such a long, long wait.

one cannot obtain much rest when every five minutes the p.a. is screeching out the latest homeland in-security warning about impending liquid death in the skies over amerika. it was such a joke to listen to this tripe about no this, that, and everything, then get all the drinks on the plane anyways. everyone thought it was all bullshit.

the whole flying experience has gotten appallingly more scary... everyone you meet looks like scared and frustrated sheep, ready to bolt. the anxiety is electric and oppresive. they really do go all out to try and frighten the shit out of us. so much for fly the friendly skies, forever. i am so glad i don't fly for a living anymore and that i'll never have to do that again.

since the only time we ever feel scared is when traveling by air, a few songs to enhance our fear of flying and things as they are today in general, in mp3, via yousendit, available for as long as it takes to put your stuff back on after clearing security:

10cc - clockwork creep
the motors - airport
david bowie and nine inch nails - i'm afraid of americans
the faces - flying
john lennon - scared
red hot chili peppers - aeroplane
husker du - eight miles high
the kinks - acute schizophrenia paranoia blues
albert hammond jr - scared
xtc - terrorism
frank sinatra - leaving on a jet plane
barney - the airplane song

goin' down south

2006-07-31T15:05:00.000-05:00

this big ol' house appears to be not going anywhere, so we are. it's time to make another trek across this big ol' country to carry a big ol' load of records and other various sundries down south. i have no problem with driving the 1200 miles, i just hate flying back. we were gonna hold on until the house sold, but that ain't exactly going as planned. so we make a run, come back and probably leave for good before winter, sold or not.

did i say i hate to fly? i really hate it... i just may stay in metry this time, tell s.a. that i'll watch 'casa de wreck' until we sell this monolith... yeah, right. it's not that reno is bad, in fact it is quite nice when you're not 5 feet under snow (winter here can be a real bitch). there's lots to do and see the rest of the year tho, but it just ain't home.

i do love to drive across this country. it is so many things in the course of a few days, a lot more if ya linger to look around and soak it in. growing up in a travelin' jazz band afforded very few opportunities to linger. my dad would take advantage of off days like clark griswald, always searching out the largest frying pan in the world, the solar system's biggest ball of foil, or some side-road freak show consisting of a trailer, a thick-faced, stumpy barker and some fool buried in a clear box filled with snakes. anything within a days drive.

but god forbid if we had to pee and he was on a deadline. mom would just pass the pee jar while dad growled 'we pee when the car needs gas', and we'd just keep truckin' on down the road. but we sure saw some cool shit in the weirdest places, just don't have the time today tho...
ahhhh, the good ol' days...

s.a. and i got to know each other very well while driving from new jersey to reno (via new orleans) after not seeing each other for a few decades. we had so much fun we've hit the road to the easy nearly every 6 months for the last five years. yep, a long road trip will break hardy men, make enemies out of lifetime friends, or make friends out of complete strangers.

s.a. is as fired up about getting back to metry as i am. she has a beautiful new $20.000 kitchen to do what she wants with. and i couldn't be happier for her, cuz i get a new improved, expanded wreckroom in which to carry out my sound and vision experiments free of hinderence from the outside world.

well, i still gotta make a few more cd's for the road, pack a book and my dobro and then we are outta here,
happy trails ya'll!

another one of the road cd's, in mp3, that'll be around here almost til we get back to reno:

red hot chili peppers - road trippin'
bob dylan - highway 61 revisited (alt mix)
junior parker - drivin' wheel
canned heat - on the road again
eddie kendrix - keep on truckin' (extnd)
bobby 'blue' bland - farther up the road
deep purple - highway star
aretha franklin - freeway of love
wille lofton - dark road blues
king crimson - vroom vroom
creedence clearwater revival - side o' the road
rem - drive
sir douglas quintet - she's about a mover
madness - driving in my car
soul surivors - expressway to your heart
the grateful dead - truckin'
the north mississippi allstars - goin' down south
muddy waters - louisiana blues

woodstock nation, revisited

2006-07-28T23:37:00.000-05:00

last weekend s.a. and i went to tahoe to decompress for a few days... and to see crosby, stills, nash and young. the only reason i really wanted to go was to see neil young, s.a. just wanted to go. i was blown away by how good these guys still are. of course, there were some missed high-notes and the boys look a lil worse for wear, but they sure can rock. and they still make a point...

during the course of the two-set, three hour show almost everything important that this band, and it's members, has done in the past 40 years was played. neil's new record, 'living with war' seemed to highlight the festivities with the cut 'flags of freedom' kicking it all off and the rest of the album scattered through the sets. that was quite fitting seeing as neil's scathing sonic indictment against bush and company is keeping up their fight against injustice and the 'man'. only the new stuff is dark and saddeningly nasty in it's delivery. none of the passion was lost in translation with the others joining in. it may have tempered it, made it easier on the ears with 4-part harmony, but it was a bush bashing kinda evening overall.

i knew that going in, as should of the rest of the crowd. as usual a few couldn't, got mad during 'let's impeach the president', and showered the stage with assorted debris... to show their love of king and country i suppose (what part of 'csny' spells neo-con, right-wing, stem-cell savin', war-monger bigot?). the band just played on as clips of king george's blunders flickered across the massive backdrop. so much for the 'freedom of speech' as the name of the tour.

other than that the band put on an amazing show. the bit where neil and stephen gigged on 'treetop flyer', or when graham jumped on the beat-up pianny while the other three stood along side singing 'our house' and the unreal guitar shoot-out between neil and stephen for 'de ja vu'. david was even up and about, laughing and singing like an angel. it warms my heart to know this man is america's most famous sperm donor.
all in all a great time was had by the majority. enuff sed...

oh yeah, there was this bit where they left the stage and the star spangled banner by hendix played, loud. almost everyone stood and was singing along, i think that was my favorite part, next to the rest of it.

July 22, 2006
Stateline, NV: Harvey's Outdoor Amphitheatre

Set 1
1. FLAGS OF FREEDOM
2. CARRY ON
3. WOODEN SHIPS
4. LONG TIME GONE
5. MILITARY MADNESS
6. AFTER THE GARDEN
7. LIVING WITH WAR
8. RESTLESS CONSUMER
9. SHOCK AND AWE
10. WOUNDED WORLD
11. ALMOST CUT MY HAIR
12. IMMIGRATION MAN
13. FAMILIES
14. DEJA VU

Set 2
15. HELPLESSLY HOPING
16. OUR HOUSE
17. ONLY LOVE
18. GUINIVERE
19. MILKY WAY
20. TREETOP FLYER
21. ROGER AND OUT
22. SOUTHBOUND TRAIN
23. OLD MAN TROUBLE
24. CARRY ME
25. TEACH YOUR CHILDREN
26. SOUTHERN CROSS
27. FIND THE COST
28. HENDRIX
29. LET’S IMPEACH THE PRESIDENT
30. FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH
31. CHICAGO
32. OHIO
33. WHAT ARE THEIR NAMES
34. ROCKIN IN THE FREE WORLD

Encore 1
35. LOVE THE ONE YOU’RE WITH

a few all-american songs for america in these good ol' days,
by the all-american band (the beach boys don't count)
in mp3 on a limited time offer:

csny (in better days):
sea of madness (woodstock)
wooden ships (woodstock)
marrakesh express (woodstock)
suite:judy blue eyes (woodstock)

neil (these days):
after the garden
the restless consumer
living with war
let's impeach the president

(pics by s.a. copyrite amerika)

have you got it yet?

2006-07-11T11:31:00.000-05:00

pink floyd founder and lasting musical inspiration syd barrett has reportedly died. the man is seen as single-handedly starting the psychedelic movement in pop music with the release of floyd's 'the piper at the gates of dawn', hot on the heels of the beatles' 'sgt. pepper' at the start of the summer of love in 1967. the lp, almost solely written by barrett, is laced with songs about fairy tales and space travel. it is whimsical and menacing, light and dark, full of imagery, fantasy and sonic de-construction, and to this day remains a true cornerstone of psychedelia in pop rock culture... that, plus a few really great singles, were the only thing he really ever did, well all that, and being a beacon of inspiration for millions for the last 40 years.

syd barrett, he of the promise of the future, the leader of a new sound and movement, was one troubled individual. within less than a year of the summer of love syd was a complete wreck. probably the product of too much fame, drugs and his own demons. he became a babbling idiot during interviews and almost catatonic at gigs. syd thought of bringing in a banjo and sax players but the band nixed that and allowed syd's school-mate, dave gilmour, to take his spot. the idea was to let syd become a sort of 'brian wilson' for the band. to just write and be the creative force, while the band carried on in person. it was apparent that not even anything remotely short of psycotic intervention would make that possible, so that idea was soon abandoned...

the members of pink floyd recall:
"So we were teaching Dave Gilmour the numbers," Nick Mason told Zigzag, "but Syd came in with some new material. The song went `Have You Got It Yet?' and he kept changing it so no one could learn it." "It was a real act of mad genius," added Roger Waters. "I didn't suss it out at all. I stood there for an hour while he was singing… trying to explain that he was changing it all the time so I couldn't follow it. He'd sing 'Have you got it yet?' and I'd sing `No, no!'"...

yep, a fuckin' mad genius alright...

he went on to move into his mother's basement during the summer of 1968, from which it is said he never left. he made two critically acclaimed, but commercially ignored albums in 1970 using the floyd, friends and such, but the sessions were the same mess that ended his stint with floyd and it showed in the scattered-brained songs that made it to the records. but inside of those two lp's are some real jewels of pop schizophrenia, songs that tread the line between have you got it and yeah that's it. he set the bar for every other tourtured genius for the duration of rock and roll (cobain couldn't deal, knocked himself and left others, at least syd took care of his mum).

and of course pink floyd went on to conquer the world (singing about syd), and the rest is what legends are made of...

pink floyd - 'arnold layne'

here are some mp3 samples of the wackiness and genius that was syd barrett, via yousendit for about as long as it takes to make 15 minutes of fame last a lifetime, or less:

w/ pink floyd:
arnold layne
see emily play
astronomy domine
interstellar overdrive
bike
apples and oranges
it would be so nice

solo stuff:
octopus
last night
baby lemonade (peel sessions)
terrapin

rest in peace syd barrett.

drop the needle on it, let it revolve

2006-07-05T21:00:00.000-05:00

pop chameleon elvis costello and new orleans' musical powerhouse allen toussaint recently released one hell of a collaborated effort in 'the river in reverse'. the two had worked together before (on elvis' wildly ecclectic 'spike'), so when allen fled to new york right after katrina they started working together immediately, doing shows for the hurricane victims around new york during sept last year. then, the initial idea was for elvis to cut a record of allen's tunes. things changed, they started writing together and by the end of november elvis and the imposters, allen, big easy guitarist anthony 'ab' brown, and the crescent city horns (all whom had lost everything in the flood) began recording in hollywood and new orleans. they finished the sessions in about 2 weeks.

the album is a wonderful showcase of toussaint's immense talent and costello's resolve to do right by his roots. highlighted by the urgency and helplessness fueled by the disaster, the album is a celebration of the city that care forgot and an indictment against the powers that failed that city. even the covered standards of toussaint reflect the desperate conditions that new orleans faces. the powerful 'who's gonna help a brother get further', a song written by allen long ago about all mankind, becomes a tale for all that is wrong with america today ('what happened to the liberty bell? did it really ding-dong? it must have dinged wrong... it didn't ding long')... i guess it's all the way you look at things ...
the tunes written by elvis reflect his feelings about the whole ugly affair, his love for the doomed city and the music it produced. some of the songs they work on together, like 'broken promised land', are true to the sentiment felt all along the gulfcoast. 'ascension day' is a haunting re-write of professor longhair's 'tipitina' (actually similar to allen's 'tipitina and me') with elvis' lyrics and plaintive drawl summing up the aftermath like he actually had been thru it. 'international echo', an ode to growing up in england listening to the crescent city sound, rollicks along to toussaint's barrell-house pianny and funky horn swells.

the album really flows just like a river, nice and smooth, then you run into these eddys that whip you around. a wonderful, yet heartbreaking ride.

the cd we got surprised us with an extra dvd included. a fairly slick little film about the making of the record that shows the pair traveling the battered streets of new orleans and recording in hollywood and the easy. it's really great to see allen getting all this attention.quite a bargain indeed, as we got it on sale at tower for less than a good bottle of wine. this is just a very nice surprise from two of our musical heroes.

what toussaint's official bio at nyno records sez...
Some of the best known hits penned by Toussaint include: Ernie K-Doe’s "Mother-in-Law;" "Fortune Teller," recorded by both Benny Spellman and The Rolling Stones; the Lee Dorsey hit "Working in the Coal Mine", also recorded by Devo and The Judds; and the Grammy-nominated "Southern Nights," recorded by Glen Campbell, which received BMI’s "The Most Performed Song of the Year" in 1977 and won the Country Music Association’s "Song of the Year." The master has produced such artists as Etta James, Albert King, Chocolate Milk, The Meters, LaBelle, Ramsey Lewis, John Mayall and Dr. John, and has been covered by and/or performed with the Pointer Sisters, Bonnie Raitt, The Judds, Robert Palmer, Otis Redding, The O’Jays, Boz Scaggs, Johnny Winter, Ringo Starr, Paul Simon, Chet Atkins, Lenny Kravitz and Elvis Costello, among others.

all that, and a lot more... and it fails to mention working with paul mccartney (which was somewhat of an epiphany back in '75 when paul and linda came to new orleans for mardi gras and record parts of 'venus and mars' at seasaint studios.)

elvis and allen perform 'who's gonna help a brother...'

elvis and allen:
six-fingered man
wonder woman
on your way down

allen toussaint:
riverboat
brickyard blues ('89 jazzfest)
whirlaway
tipitina (w/ john cleary @ musicare's hurricane benefit)

now go buy 'the river in reverse' or any allen toussaint and elvis costello!

rock-n-roll videos

2006-06-29T11:06:00.000-05:00

well, it has been awhile hasn't it? not much going on in the old w'room lately, just waiting for someone to buy this house... feels like that'll never happen at all right now. so come august we are driving to the easy again with another load of stuff. now there is something to look forward to!

we have been real busy filling up with torrents and viddys, (HAL is nearly full everyday and the stack of cd's and dvd's of all things bootlegged are quickly filling up the empty spaces in the w'room), so much to download, so little time and space!

here's a few of our fave viddys of all time, so far...

the beatles 'free as a bird'

the chemical brothers 'let forever be'

bob dylan 'subterranean homesick blues'

blur 'coffee and t.v.'

the kinks - deadend street

radiohead 'paranoid android'

the rolling stones 'we love you'

xtc 'respectable street'

nirvana 'heart-shaped box'

the who 'happy jack'

stop me, if you've heard this one before...

2006-06-06T11:49:00.000-05:00

fear of falling
(hi-fi) (lo-fi) (mp3)

now she wants to come around, she wants to be my best friend.
she says she likes me hanging 'round, when can we do this again?...
...and if i start to fall, i always fall too hard and if fall for her when she calls i know i'll surely fall apart.

9 o'clock up on the wall ... it isn't telling time.
9 o'clock up on the wall ... it's only telling lies.
if she calls me should i listen or should i hang up? i'm in trouble cuz i know...
...that if i start to fall i always fall too hard and if i fall for her when she calls i know i'll surely fall apart.

now i like her coming 'round, i made her my best friend.
now i'm glad she's hangin' 'round, when can we do this again?
if i call her will she listen or will she hang up? i'm in trouble cuz i know...
...that if i start to fall i always fall too hard and if i fall for her when she calls i know i'll fall apart...

...and if i really fall, i really fall too hard, and if i really fall when she calls, i know i'll really fall apart...

stuff you need to know to get by in this world

2006-06-02T18:15:00.000-05:00

Never argue with an idiot. The people watching might not know the difference.

If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried before.

On the keyboard of life, always keep one finger on the escape key.

When you're laying in bed at night looking up at the stars, don't panic when you suddenly wonder "Where the Hell is the ceiling?!"

Remember, when someone annoys you, it takes 42 muscles in your face to frown. BUT, it only takes 4 muscles to extend your arm and SMACK the asshole upside the head.

The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four people is suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best friends -- if they're okay, then it's you.

Just remember........if the world didn't suck, we'd all fall off.

Everyone has a photographic memory. Some just don't have film.

Some people are like Slinkies . . . not really good for anything, but you still can't help but giggle when you see one tumble down the stairs.

In the 60's people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.

There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.

It is said that if you line up all the cars in the world end to end someone would be stupid enough to try and pass them.

Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

The things that come to those who wait may be the things left by those who got there first.

Birds of a feather flock together and then crap on your car.

If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

Don't assume malice for what stupidity can explain.

The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing in the right place, but also to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

The easiest way to find something lost around the house is buy a replacement.

If you can smile when things go wrong, you have someone in mind to blame.

The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth of the hole!

Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile way and you have their shoes.

If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

Some days you are the bug, some days you are the windshield.

Good judgment comes from bad experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

There are two theories to arguing with women. Neither one works.

Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

Always remember you're unique. Just like everyone else.

Never test the depth of the water with both feet.

Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you a mechanic.

Junk is something you've kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.

Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you've just made it again.

By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.

Your mind not only wanders, it sometime leaves completely.

Sometimes you'll think you understand everything, then you'll regain consciousness.

A day without sunshine is like.................well, night.

Seen it all, done it all...........can't remember most of it.

Those who live by the sword..........get shot by those who don't.

Nothing is foolproof.............to a sufficiently talented fool.

Everybody lies........but it doesn't matter since nobody listens.

There is always one more imbecile than you counted on.

Dogs have owners. Cats have staff.

When I die, I want to die like my grandmother who died peacefully in her sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in her car.

it smells of ukulele

2006-05-26T07:34:00.000-05:00

this is a real laugh riot, the ukulele orchestra of great britain doin' a smokin' version of that old standard 'smells like teen spirit'. the m.c. is jools holland from one of his specials on british t.v. jeesh, ya gotta love the world wide web!

and if ya got more time to kill, here is '2001: a space odyssey' fully explained, in flash animation.

have a great memorial weekend ya'll!

'all i can do is be me... whoever that is.'

2006-05-24T21:31:00.000-05:00

they're naming roads after him, and it's true, the whole world should come to a stop. his hometown is bracing for something they feel will compare to mardi gras, and we should all be there. it's bob dylan's 65th birthday today.

someone reflects (sort of... ) on dylan's life, up 'til now.

bob is one of our true inspirations, jeesh, what this guy has seen and done. just growing up with bob has been quite a trip in itself. the man is a mystery wrapped in an enigma, wrapped in a riddle (or however that silly saying goes). my first memories of dylan were of listening to 'like a rolling stone' on my little box radio and regaling in the knowledge that my parents couldn't stand what he sounded like, looked like and stood for. and that was just enuff for me back then. he was never a role-model for me, not like the beatles were, but then again he was a major influence on john's songwriting (and he was the 1st one to turn them on to pot) so i guess it was really thru osmosis that he sunk in so deep in my psyche.

i'm really sorry we missed him at the jazz fest last month, but i do have fond memories of seeing him at the warehouse in new orleans with the rolling thunder revue in 1975. the funniest thing happened that day. dylan came out on stage to complete silence. no one was even breathing. it was as if time stopped. but when joan baez stepped out she had a standing ovation. i was floored, 'diamonds and rust'? dylan was riding high with 'desire' but she gets the accolades. but for months later all the talk was about bob (well, bob, and roger mcguinn, who pulled off a stellar version of 'chestnut mare'). i think everyone was just quite stunned to actually see the man onstage. ahhh, it was a great show anyways,

here's a few of the wreckroom's favorite dylan tunes, in mp3, for your pleasure on his 65th via yousendit for about a week or so:

forever young
rainy day women #12 & 35
it's alright ma, i'm only bleeding
cocaine blues (live)
subterranean homesick blues
like a rolling stone (live)
don't think twice it's alright
stuck inside of mobile with the memphis blues again
tangled up in blue
the ballad of frankie lee and judas priest

buy some dylan shit, like his music or his book...

oh, and a last minute bonus, the incredible byrds tune 'chestnut mare'

good night, and good night...

the white album, texas style

2006-05-18T11:57:00.000-05:00

The White Album in Concert with Special Guests
7:30 pm May 19, 2006
10:00 pm May 19, 2006

Strings Attached closes its 5th Season with the Complete Beatles' White Album Live
FOR TICKETS: Call 477-9837, go to YourTexasMusic.com.
This concert will be at University Baptist Church, 2130 Guadalupe Street, across from the UT campus.
On Friday, May 19th, Strings Attached is excited to invite you to a great musical fusion, as the acoustic chamber ensemble joins forces with some of Austin's most beloved musicians in a unique, one-night-only performance of the Beatles' entire White Album.
Join Joe Ely, Abra Moore, Jimmy Dale Gilmore, and more than 20 other special guests as they unite the past and present, bringing to life the 1968 acclaimed, best-selling Beatles' album.
The 2-hour show will be played twice with the second show including a live projection light show above the stage by Charles Beard.

White Album CAST:
Back in the USSR with Joe Ely
Dear Prudence with Jimmie Dale Gilmore
Blackbird - Abra Moore
Honey Pie - Olivier Giraud
Sexie Sadie - Billy Harvey
Happiness is a Warm Gun with Tony Scalzo
Wild honey Pie and The Continuing Story of Bungalo Bill with White Ghost Shivers
Glass Onion with Rodney Connell
Why Don't We Do It in the Road with Seela
Savoy Truffle with Bruce James
Obla di Obla da with Schrodinger's Cat
While My Guitar Gently Weeps with Gary Clark Jr.,
Martha My Dear - Libby Kirkpatrick
I'm So Tired - Wendy Colona
Piggies with Bob Livingston
Mother Natures Son - Tucker Livingston
Rocky Raccoon - Matt the Electrician
Don't Pass Me By Eric Hokkanen
I Will - Shane Bartell
Julia - David Halley
Birthday - Craig Marshall
Yer Blues - Seth Walker
Everybodies Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey - Chopper
Helter Skelter - Brian Keane
Long Long Long - David Hess
Cry Baby Cry - Beth Garner
Revolution 1 - Carolyn Wonderland
Revolution #9 - Special guest and Strings Attached ensemble

looks to be a really cool evening of music. if we were within 500 miles of that show we'd be there. faithful readers of this space know how much we love this record and we love it when someone tries to take on the white album in one pop. not many attempt this feat, and even fewer succeed in pulling it off. phish used to do whole shows using the white album (there is a very good bootleg from one of their white concerts out and about) and there are a few beatle tribute bands using it as their centerpiece.
so, if your around the austin, texas area tomorrow night, this looks like the place to be!

some starstudded stars here doing the white one, via yousendit for a little while at least:

siouxse and the banshees - dear prudence
sting with jeff beck - while my guitar gently weeps
u2 - happiness is a warm gun
crosby still and nash - blackbird
jack johnson - rocky raccoon
charles manson - why don't we do it in the road
chocolate genius - julia
bugs bunny and friends - birthday
fats domino - everybody's got something to hide except for me and my monkey
husker du - helter skelter
elliott smith - revolution
throwing muses - cry baby cry
phish - revolution 9

avalanche!

2006-05-16T19:25:00.000-05:00

looks as tho sufjan stevens is gonna extend his stay in 'illinoise' during his insanely ambitious musical 50-state trek... news about upcoming release of 'avalanche' is here and here.

it seems the ol' suf-man had a few extra songs recorded for 'come on feel the illinoise' , apparently he had alot to say about the prairie state, (i spent a few formative years in the village of niles, il. years later robin zander, of cheap trick, would giggle thru a stoned haze and exclaim to me that niles was the first suburb in america, tho i would beg to differ, i think that was levittown). we guess he decided to put out another album from the excess , or he just needs a bit of time cos he is doing more research for his next state/cd (he says he'll do new jersey by the exits on the turnpike, ha. i think i lived off exit 67 a few years ago, in barnegat, near the pine barrens, nevermind... it's a jersey thing. everything revolves around the garden state parkway there.)

but here's a leaked ditty from the cd 'avalanche', via yousend it for a shorter time than it takes to find the parkway:

sufjan stevens - adlai stevenson

plus one that prob will never make a record:
sufjan stevens - the 50-state song (live at the bluebird theatre in denver colorado 7-30-05)

and a song done for the rubber soul tribute 'this bird has flown':
sufjan stevens - what goes on

and a few tunes i left off the last post but shoulda included (was i drunk?), (no doubt)...
some kinks covers by the minus 5 (enjoy mr dvd!)...

the minus 5 - wicked annabella (from 'give the people what we want')
the minus 5 - get back in line (from 'this is where i belong')

the gun album

2006-05-15T11:20:00.000-05:00

the minus 5 is like a blast of fresh air, a very needed thing in these musically-horse-lattitude-days.
scott mccaughy (pronounced 'mccoy'), his partner in crime, peter buck (of r.e.m.), and numerous musical friends have delivered a killer record. the self-titled 7th album has been labled by fans as 'the gun album', mostly for the haunting cover as well as the fact that many of the tunes mention firearms. but musically this is faraway from a violent record. like the rest of the minus 5 cataloge, it is quirky, ragged, well crafted pop rock. altho the lyrics are dark at times, the music is hum-along good, making hearing it over again and again something that peels the layers off, revealing a deep and thoughtful record laced with dry humour and toe-tappin' tunes.
this record is not as poppy and lightweight as their best effort, 'down with wilco', (a tougne-in-cheek title... it was done with wilco backing scott), but it is just as easy to fall in love with. a country-tinged semi-psychedelic beatle inspired endevour that seems cohesive and chaotic all at once. scott's plaintive moan over a farfisa organ and syd barrett-like slide on 'left over life to kill' sounds lifted from a late 60's acid record. the chipper feeling on 'my life as a creep' is infectious with it's sgt. pepper pumping piano and skewed falsetto backing vocals.
at times lyrically hilarious, with lines like, 'i had six white russians tonite and two of them were people', from the catchy hook and riff laden 'out on the maroon', the cd had us rolling on the floor at first listen... and there's been many listens since.
the minus 5 is with out a doubt the best album of the year, so far.

mp3's from the minus 5 'gun album' via yousendit for less time than it takes to load a pistol:
my life as a creep
leftover life to kill
out on the maroon
(buy the minus 5!)

an extra:
the little black egg (an amazing cover of the nightcrawlers song)

and a really interesting interview and some live studio treatments from the new record:
the minus 5 on npr 05-04-06 (stream)

ticket to mash

2006-05-09T20:03:00.000-05:00

found this very funny viddy done with beatles action figures and a nice mash-up ...

let's go for a drive

2006-05-06T20:40:00.000-05:00

the house is done, the kids are gone for the weekend and we're hanging around drinkin' and loungin', wishing we were at the muddy jazzfest. soon come, soon come.

last week, in the midst of preparing 'casa de wreck' for sale, i kinda pooped this viddy out. this one, opposed to 'american 195x', kinda made itself. i forgot i had downloaded this goofy film from the 40's about driving safely. an innocent looking film using stop-motion animation to convey the typical safety message to the public. ahhhhh, but it is really a graphic depiction of horrid driving skills. the yellow car is always the culprit (amongst others) and a few bits are really disturbing (the guy in front of his brokendown car getting reamed is almost funny if it weren't so sad).

so i took it and ripped it over a semi-ancient 4-track song i had written about taking a sunny day drive. the tune started innocently on mandolin and ended up as an homage to the beatles' 'good day sunshine' and the kinks' 'drivin''. it seemed so, appropo, for the found footage. sometimes shit just works for spiritual reasons... but this ain't one of 'em, this is just down right silly. hope ya'll enjoy this and laff as much as we have...

blue stone drive

* don't you think that the weather is fine, dear?
lock up the house and we'll go for a ride . . .

we've been working real hard, with the days too long,
we've got to get away. . .
jump in the car, bring the dog along,
everything can wait.

* don't you think that the weather is fine, dear?
lock up the house and we'll go for a ride . . .

just you and me and sadie makes three, we can't leave her behind.
here's a map we won't need of the places we'll see, we're going for a drive . . .

* don't you think that the weather is fine, dear?
roll down the windows and we'll go for a ride . . .

(pianny solo!)

sadie's in the back, got beatles on the box, not a cloud up in the sky.
there's some wine in my sack, and a lil' bit of pot, as long as you don't mind.
later we'll stop long enough to eat beneath a shady tree.
and if it gets hot, we can fall asleep, fall in each others dreams . . .

* don't you think that the weather is fine, dear?
lock up the house and we'll go for a ride . . .

(...and since youtube compresses the song to digital mush in the viddy here is presented just the tune for your listening pleasure:)

the metry wrecks - blue stone drive (mp3 - play lo-fi - play hi-fi)

for sale: house in reno

2006-05-05T23:40:00.000-05:00

well, we finally got the house up for sale. as you can see it is a vast improvement over the way it was ...
whew, it just took slightly less than forever to get to this point, paintin' and cleanin' and all. but here we are. and we're now closer to home. altho not in time for this weekends jazz festivities.

my sister has a nasty habit of calling us from concerts in new orleans and sorta dick waving (she hit me yesterday, i have no idea who it was, daggnnabbitt). i did it too to friends, from baseball stadiums and various events around the country, so i guess it is just a bit o' catch back. not easy to swallow when you know who she may be catching (once in a while i nail the band she is watching, depends on the connection, had her with costello last year, the bass to 'pump it up' gave it away.) but at least once we're back she won't have that to do to me.

other stuff:
we went and did it, just when we shouldn't... got a new truck, a bit too big for the gas (it is $3 a gallon in reno now), but just big enuff to pull us and the little rav across country, while housing 3 dogs , a cat, and whatever else will fit. a new top o' the line, fully loaded, big, black, 2006 toyota tundra. ahhh, such a big ass un-american truck. almost as big as the wreckroom, with an almost comparable sound system. but hey, if we coulda got a sweet deal for just as good a truck from dodge, we'd a gone there. and they wonder why? oh well ...

the house is done so now it is up to the gods of getting outta reno to get us down the road, and back to the easy. then it is up to god knows what to keep us safe from there on out.

and, ahem... a few really silly truckin' tunes to giggle along to down the road in that big frickin' truck, burnin' fossil fuel and our next generation's lifestyle, via yousendit for a shorter time than it'll take us to get home:

grateful dead - truckin'
coal chamber - big truck
deep purple - space truckin'
eddie kendricks - keep on truckin' (complete)
franz ferdinand - truck stop
kid rock - trucker's anthem
bowling for soup - trucker hat

american 195x

2006-04-30T21:48:00.000-05:00

what happens when you give a guy with too much time on his hands some really cool widescreen videos to hack and a program to make a bit of really neat sounds?

sometimes these things kinda build themselves. this wasn't one of 'em. '195x' took a few months of meticulous bumpin' and grindin', shuckin' and a'groovin', and cutting and pasting, with a few sleepless nites tossed in to get it into a presentable state.

i wanted to try somthing new with this one, to write the song to fit the video. usually it's the other way around, just chop and move viddy bits to an established soundtrack. this time i built a rough viddy using a few widescreen technicolor wonders of film by the handy organization found in the internet archives measured to a simple drum pattern. from there it was only a matter of making the music fit the rough draft video, then tweaking the video itself to make it tight. sounds easy, eh? pretty much, but just so damn time consuming. it's a shame i don't get paid to do this anymore... then again, i'd probably be working on something really banal like weddings, bar mitzvas and births. tho not monetarily rewarding, for now, this just so much more fun. and all the money in the world can't replace the feeling of creating just for the feel of it.

the (jam) handy organization produced a slew of educational and product films from the 30's thru the 60's. some of the projects done for chevrolet during the 50's are the slickest, most stylish examples of advertising ever made. feature-like films such as 'american look' from 1958 document the explosion of gadgets and how design plays a major role in the way we ,as a consumer, comsume. it is a visually stunning look at america during the late 50's and tho it is narrated, it really just great eye candy. this is what the prelinger archives has to say about 'american look';

A "tribute to the American stylist," American Look shows families at leisure, children dressed in cowboy and cowgirl outfits watching television, a father shooting home movies of his picnicking family, Fifties-modern home interiors graced by formally dressed models, furniture (including designs by Herman Miller), kitchens and kitchen equipment, packaging (including designs by Donald Deskey), appliances, textiles, offices and office furniture, office machines, industrial machines, lawn mowers and sprinklers, domestic and institutional architecture, people at leisure and enjoying recreation, children playing baseball, a mother and child in a transparent rowboat being observed by the snorkeling father, automobile styling and design and the work of the design staff of the new General Motors Technical Center at Warren, Michigan. The story behind the design of the 1959 Chevrolet Impala is shown, with dramatized moments in the design and modeling process.
The film lumps industrial, interior and product design efforts together as "styling," and characterizes them as responses by industry to insistent consumer demands for the most modern products and environment. During the last third of this twenty-eight-minute film, it becomes clear that it was produced to celebrate modern design as exemplified in the "look" of the 1959 Chevrolets, the year that tailfins stretched to their greatest extent. Since, in that year, many General Motors models shared similar mechanical components, the film promotes the many alternative design options available to car buyers, stating that "America's greatest freedom [is] the freedom of individual choice." This visually dazzling and technically excellent film presents a great variety of clean and antiseptic late Fifties products and environments, and those interested in design history would do well to listen closely to its narration.

so, the bulk of '195x' comes from 'look', but there are bits of other 'handy' films as well. the scenes in these films of vast highway systems and city scenarios blended with people using the latest technology paint a moving picture of america after world war II, spreading out to the 'burbs and utilizing it's newfound strength as consumers. i tried to convey that optimistic feeling that we had then, and that is shown in these 'handy' films. kinda like a portrait of 50's americana done to a mutant, contemporary, sub-urban soundtrack.

of course this has nothing to do with the world as we know it today, sad to say...

if ya want the tune (in all it's late 50's stereophonic glory) here it is...

'american 195x' (mp3 - stream)

and new pop ditty, quite new, quite wordless and lookin' for some words, (if ya got any ideas, i am open for offers):

'waiting for the revolution' (mp3 - stream)

america's beatles in 1965

2006-04-28T22:59:00.000-05:00

in 1965 the beatles released 4 albums in america. nowadays that would be incomprehensible. of course capitol records used a bit of sleight of hand to pull it off. as soon as capitol realized the golden goose they had with the beatles they began manipulating the albums as to gain the most sales. up until around 1967 albums in england were relased with 14 cuts per lp, 7 on a side and the american standard was 12 tracks an lp, 6 on each side. capitol switched tracks, running orders and created completely new albums from the official british lp's. but no one cared back then, as long as we had a beatle lp in our paws.

it wasn't until the beatle cataloge was released on cd during the 80's did i even realize the vast difference in the u.s. and british records. it took awhile to get used to hearing the albums as they were intended. the american versions were quite burned into my brain by then, as i am sure many others that had grown up listening to the boys in the 60's can attest.

in yet another sure-fire money-making move the powers-that-be at capitol decided a few years ago to repackage the (so far) 8 lp's created for the american market. 2004 saw the first four lps, from 1964, released in both stereo and mono versions on four discs with the original sleeves. a very nice package that brought back a flood of memories and a great sound (no scratches!) to all those that can remember and a bunch that never knew.

last month the second volume, the 4 lp's from 1965, was unleashed. and as soon as it hit the shelves it was in trouble. it seems that the mono mixes on two of the lps were just stereo folds. that is to say, they were mixed using the stereo version to make the mono version, which almost anyone can do at home these days.

a bit o' history is needed here i guess... george martin always worked the mono mixes first, as at the time stereo was not widely seen as the standard format. the beatles very rarely even showed up for the stereo mix downs at all until sgt pepper in 1967. as any major enginneer, and quite a few audiophiles, will tell ya, each mix has things that are different. slight level adjustments, minor editing thingys, and just enuff stuff to make ya listen a bit harder.
so, this dj in philly finds a major glitch with the new box set, alerts capitol and begins a damage control to spare the public from getting a deal it wasn't offered. it appears some idiot sent the stereo-to-mono mixes of two of the new boxset cd's (beatles VI and rubber soul) to the pressing plant. i am pretty sure that most that got the bogus cd's weren't even aware. ahhh, but to those that know, this is borderline criminal. as of now it seems the prob is fixed, the updated sets have an 'sk1' on the outer sticker and are said to be the real mono mixes, i guess i'll wait and see.
what i really want is the white album mono mix. if i wait for apple to get it out i may be too old to remember it, anybody got one?

npr has a great show up on the new beatles capitol albums volume 2 box set featuring mr bruce spizer (the lawyer, new orleans native, beatle know-it-all and author of quite a few great books on the evolution of the beatles and their records). it is an informative and entertaining few minutes. and if ya look around the site there is alot more beatle-related shows for streaming. (if ya ask, i got 'em all on mp3)...

the snafu with the new beatle box set.
the snafu with box set fixed?

in 1966 robert whitaker photographed the cover below, this was the beatles response to the 'butchered' albums released by capitol in america. it was yanked before it hit the shelves but the company took the butchered copies and glued a new cover on them, then let them out. as soon as word got out thousands of kids were spending valuable time standing over a boiling pot of water trying to reveal the banned original. some had it, most didn't. i knew a girl in vegas in 1968 that was so proud of her ripped up, badly peeled copy (looked like shit, but i was soooo jealous)... i wonder if she still has it...

to finish off this, yet, another beatle post, i submit as much of 'tomorrow never knows' as i have found in my travels... i know, i know, this is from the first of the revolver sessions in 1966, but since there is one more american lp left outta the boxsets, i wonder how they will handle 'revolver', perhaps a very nice cd of alternate mixes of all the 1966 beatle output, how could they not do something really nice for their 2nd to best album?

... in 1967 sgt pepper was released and every lp after fell in line with the british releases.

here, by the power of yousendit, (for a short time), some mp3s from various people of that beatle song ....
guided by voices - tomorrow never knows
king crimson - tomorrow never knows
utopia - tomorrow never knows
the helio sequence - tomorrow never knows
our lady peace - tomorrow never knows
les claypool's flying frog brigade - tomorrow never knows
govt mule - tomorrow never knows
living colour - tomorrow never knows
david lee roth - tomorrow never knows

jazz fest '06

2006-04-23T19:28:00.000-05:00

well, it looks as tho we won't be home for the jazz fest. daggnnabbitt!
it seems that this house is still in need of this and that. just enuff stuff to drag it all out a bit longer. just long enuff to make us miss the jazz fest.
i swear the winter here never ends... we had a few inches of snow easter sunday with the mountains getting pounded pretty good. they look like big marshmallows right now. the people that would know such things tell me that houses sell faster in the warm months. if that is true we will be here til august. and we were so looking to get back by the end of the month, ha!
daggnnabbitt!

i was on a roll for awhile there. i made every jazz fest (either working, partying or both) from 1972 until the mid 90's. heard a buncha of great music, ate a lot of great food and saw quite a few bizarre things in that time. but if i wasn't making more money elsewhere or just plain outta town, i was there. memories good and bad. like when i was on t.v. dancing in the mud in front of dr john around '77 and my mom went nuts calling everyone she knew to turn on the news, or the time my very best friend glennski died of a stroke standing in line for an iced tea. and him only 32. been there on glorious spring days where the breeze blows the clouds across the sky like wisps of smoke and the flags and banners, to mark the spot, wave in unison doin' their funky fey-do-do around the fairgrounds and on shitty, muddy, wrecked days, under dead skies that drop rain in torrential fists that pound the grounds into sludge. but it was always worth it, whether to sneak in or walk in with the band, or pay like the lessers.
daggnnabbitt!

this year's fest line-up is incredible;
Fats Domino, Bruce Springsteen with the Seeger Sessions Band, Jimmy Buffett, Dave Matthews Band, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Lionel Richie, Keith Urban, Yolanda Adams, Herbie Hancock, La India, The Meters, Allen Toussaint w/ Elvis Costello, Etta James, Dr. John, The Ohio Players, Irma Thomas, Ani DiFranco, Keb’ Mo’, Hugh Masekela, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Koko Taylor, Pete Fountain, Doug Kershaw, Little Feat, Bishop Paul S. Morton, Sr., The Radiators, Sam Moore, Doug E. Fresh & Slick Rick, Warren Haynes, Angelique Kidjo, Yerba Buena, Chris Owens, Irvin Mayfield, Buckwheat Zydeco, Galactic, Deacon John, Rebirth Brass Band, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Donald Harrison w/ Eddie Palmieri, Snooks Eaglin,Cowboy Mouth, Clarence “Frogman” Henry, Kermit Ruffins, Roland Guerin w/ Marcus Roberts, Sonny Landreth, Walter “Wolfman” Washington, Terence Blanchard, the subdudes, Ellis Marsalis w/ Lew Tabackin, Nicholas Payton, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and many, many more... and there are rumors comin' in hinting at bigger things.

i think sunday the 30th would be a great day to hit the 'grounds'... springsteen, elvis, meters, (i try to catch ziggaboo and the meters when ever i can, but bruce don't come thru town much these days, any town really).

a few vital jazz fest links:
jazzfest radio
first weekend
second weekend.

and now a few mp3's concerning the big easy roots and food fest brought to you via yousendit for less time than it takes to catch the whole dang thing ...

snooks eaglin - by the river
allen toussaint - riverboat
allen toussaint - on your way down
the meters - pungee
dr john - jump sturdy
dr john - walk on guilded splinters
dr john - life

the way we get by

2006-04-05T17:47:00.000-05:00

here is a spoon show in las vegas on october 30th, 2005...
in mp3 via yousendit for about a week or so:
the beast and dragon, adored
someone something
lines in the suit
sister jack
fitted shirt
i turn my camera on
anything you want
back to life
paper tiger
small takes
they never got you
i summon you
two sides of monsieur valentine
the way we get by
me and the bean
jonathon fisk
my mathematical mind

this is a great sounding show made from the soundboard. the band is tight and seems to be enjoying themselves. well worth a listen, 'specially if you are a fan or if ya just wanna see how they do live. we haven't had the chance to catch them but that should change when we get closer to austin,tx than reno.
spoon is probably our favorite new band and we are glad to see them getting a bunch of exposure ... like the songs turning up on t.v. for the odd commercial or two. each of their records is a progression to what seems to be superstardom. this is gonna be fun to watch.

here in reno we are speeding along getting ready to move. the wreckroom, in a physical sense, is all but gone. it's been repainted a drab industrial color (the better to sell fast i'm told) and the garage is to the bursting point with boxes filled up from the w'room. ahhh, can smell the gumbo from here.

official site for spoon

get back!

2006-03-30T20:21:00.000-06:00

"In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...

There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

--Theodore Roosevelt, 1919

that, dear sirs, about sums it up...

watching all the bru-ha-ha over the last week just leaves us in stitches. what the fuck is going on? there are kids in l.a., skippin' school, protesting so their "undocumented" mom and pop don't get run outta the u.s.a. and carrying mexican flags(?)... like that is gonna win the hearts and minds of middle amerika. there are many americans that could do the work, but who is gonna pay? we like the stuff they pick, the rooms they clean and all that stuff that i could never do (coz i'm an american, but have done, at the same rate i might add ... and would do again if needed, but pablo's got that job).

they all need to go back home, stand in line and do it like my great-great grandparents did. sure, it is nice to be gettin' all this cheap shit, but this is what is killin' us. we're fat, lazy and stupid and we get someone else who will do the dirty work for us. we got what we deserve. it is all about consumerism and the dirty work. this is a sure sign of the fall if we give in to them, this is not the united states of mexico. yet the wal-marts of the u.s.a. think that is how to things get done here. and i guess it is so. they'll win. it'll be a divided country, no real english, more spanglish. we are gonna have to conform to a world that nafta created. canameximerica ... there ya go! wonder how the cannucks feel about learning spanish to get by too.

... back in early 1969 sir paul wrote a tune, didn't know where it was going, and threw it to the rest of the beatles. it was about the immigrant problem in britain at the time. of course the prob they had was more self induced, but it was a still a growing prob.

anyways, 'commonwealth' became one of the biggest selling singles for the band, 'get back'.
and here in its evolving state is the tune... it just feels right, right now (substitute your own nationality in the words), right now.

the mp3s of the evolution of get back, via yousendit (for a limited time only):
'commonwealth'
'no pakistanis'
'get back' (run through)
'get back' (single)

(or as john said, 'why don't you put it on the toast?')

or, we just couldn't let a beatle ref get by on this one...
enjoy the tunes!

robot men from the moon

2006-03-28T18:25:00.000-06:00

here is a new video, from the tattered remnants of the reno wreckroom ...

... we've been real busy gettin' the house ready for sale, and it's looking as tho that won't be too hard. lately my world has been sucky, big time. the girls were sick last month and now i've had it for a week. and to top it off lil' payton's got it too. all my energy has been spent working on the video and packing til i drop. the w'room is depleted of everything but the computer and a few books, cds and movies. i'm quite uncomfortable with all that shit sitting in boxes and untouchable. i am left to my own devises and the files on 'HAL' so anything i do for the blog is gonna be pretty much on the fly ... at least til metry.
since the weather is starting to warm up, (it's raining now, no snow!), i should be feeling more flexible and creative, or maybe just creatively flexible. anyways, let's hope i do more writing than i have during the last month.
well, that is the plan, for now.

trouble is my business

2006-03-12T12:20:00.000-06:00

"dead men are heavier than broken hearts."
from 'the big sleep'

philip marlowe was the coolest detective ever. he didn't take no shit, from no one, and he always gave a wisecrack back. he had principles that always got him in more trouble than he asked for. but he stuck to 'em. his clients came the highest strata of society. usually they were just as scummy as the scum on the street that he dealt with every day. he treated them all the same, using a quick wit and the gritty slang of the times . he rarely needed or carried a gun, but they were thrown at him like beads at mardi gras. a lone wolf, to say the least, marlowe was forever dealing with some beautiful dame involved up to her pretty neck in blackmail and murder. like a chivalrous knight, he always felt compelled to rescue them. to him, it was just a job ... and all for just 25 bucks a day and expenses.

raymond chandler introduced the hard-boiled, hard-drinking, soft-hearted private eye to the world in his first novel, 'the big sleep'. pulp fiction, and the world, was never the same after. he didn't invent the genre, but he defined it. he took what was already there and made it into an art. using the template of dashiell hammett's style of detective stories, chandler created the world of noir that marlowe inhabits. written concisely and brutally, his words dance from the pages. the stories are visually stunning in detail. stories about scary and sparklingly bizarre characters and set in the art-deco slummed los angeles of the mid-20th century. like ian flemings' super spy 'james bond', chandler's philip marlowe is probably the most imitated private eye ever put to pulp or celluloid. detectives dekard in 'blade runner' and hartigan from 'sin city' are like marlowe's bastard sons. as is robert b. parker's 'spenser' and to some degree even t.v.'s 'rockford files'. there's a reason for this. chandler's books were just so damn good.

i am blazing through all the novels again, from 'the big sleep' to 'playback' and the collection of all his short stories. this'll be at least the third time for each, more for the good ones. 'the long goodbye' is probably the best of the lot. it is chandler in his prime and marlowe at his toughest. the plot line is very tight, a problem that chandler had with a few novels and screenplays. it flows like a dream, woven with shaky men and shakier women, the rich, the crooked and the down-right evil, the story is a real page-turner of a ride. and it's over much too soon, as is the feeling of each of his books. and even though some may seem flat a mundane marlowe novel is better than anything else of the kind. haven't read his unfinished novel 'poodle springs', that was finished by robert b parker in the late 80s. but i guess it'll be on the list next, after reading all chandler's stuff again.

the guy did just about everything before he turned to writing pulp fiction, as is shown in his bio ...
Raymond Thornton Chandler (1888 - 1959) was the master practitioner of American hard-boiled crime fiction. Although he was born in Chicago, Chandler spent most of his boyhood and youth in England where he attended Dulwich College and later worked as a freelance journalist for The Westminster Gazette and The Spectator. During World War I, Chandler served in France with the First Division of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, transferring later to the Royal Flying Corps (R. A. F.). In 1919 he returned to the United States, settling in California, where he eventually became director of a number of independent oil companies. The Depression put an end to his career, and in 1933, at the age of forty-five, he turned to writing fiction, publishing his first stories in Black Mask. Chandler’s detective stories often starred the brash but honorable Philip Marlowe (introduced in 1939 in his first novel, The Big Sleep) and were noted for their literate presentation and dead-on critical eye. Never a prolific writer, Chandler published only one collection of stories and seven novels in his lifetime. Some of Chandler’s novels, like The Big Sleep, were made into classic movies which helped define the film noir style. In the last year of his life he was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America. He died in La Jolla, California on March 26, 1959.

buy raymond chandler now!

a buncha free mp3s about private eyes and detectives by way of yousendit, for just a blink of the eye:

the adventures of philip marlowe - red wind (1st radio show broadcast 6-17-1947)
elvis costello and the attractions - watching the detectives
new york dolls - bad detective
henry mancini - mr. lucky
art of noise - peter gunn
the skatalites - pink panther
alkline trio - private eye
the aqua velvets - a day in the life of a private eye
of montreal - the events leading up to the collapse of detective dullight
taku iwasaki - adventure of the bookshelf detective
the nips - private eye
fred bongusto - the detective
the firesign theatre - the further adventures of nick danger private eye

the rock and roll doctors

2006-03-06T17:44:00.000-06:00

we're glad we don't have a deadline for this blog because it would really be crimping our style lately. we've been a bit too busy deconstructing the wreckroom to put any meaningful posts up, or any posts at all for that matter. the snows is coming every other day and s.a. is on a hell-bent mission from god to get us up and outta reno as soon as possible (she's a lil' go-gettin' woman when she puts her mind to something, and that something is seeing reno in the rearview mirror about 8 weeks from now as we drive to home new orleans).

my mission, since i chose to accept it, has been salvaging the wrecked 'folklore' project from whatever hole that beast done slipped into ... ripping odd songs to digital as the tapes get stashed and trying to put it all together again in acid. it's like a nagging little splinter in the trigger-finger that just needs to come out, no matter how painful, and that is about all i have been listening to. almost done tho and one day, when i feel really brave i guess i'll post it, maybe. so this week has been nothing but pack, mix, patch, dub and paint. finally this place is lookin a lil bare, yeah!

a few months ago i stumbled across an old bootleg of a live little feat show that was taped at ultrasonic studios in hempstead new york on september 19th, 1974 (you can find alot more of little feat and a great deal many other live recordings at the live music archive). this was when little feat was the best rock and roll band in the land. and probably the hardest to define. led by a certain lowell george, the feats played a bluesy, skewed country-tinged rock-n-roll. they didn't sound like a band from the sunny climes of southern california; they sounded more like a band from southern georgia.

this is the band at the top of their game, about the time of the release of their 4th, and best album, 'feats don't fail me now', before lowell got all strung out and gave up caring about the band. they were tight beyond belief in this live-in-the-studio recording. everything here works, the sound is superb, the band rocks and it still feels fresh as anything around.

live at ultrasonic studios hempstead, n.y. 9-19-74
rock and roll doctor
oh atlanta!
two trains
when the shit hits the fan
on your way down
spanish moon
skin it back
fat man in a bathtub
willin'
cold, cold, cold
dixie chicken/tripe face boogie
tripe faced again

featbase

lowell george website

and the feats are playing at the new orleans jazz fest may 5th (what a rockin' 2 weeks and we should be home by then!)

throw my baby out the window!

2006-02-27T12:00:00.000-06:00

today is called 'lundi gras' in the big easy. the day before mardi gras.
they said it couldn't happen ... shouldn't happen. but how the hell ya gonna stop it?
as fat tuesday approaches we wonder how many families in hot 'lanta, houston, and points beyond are doin' some kinda funky second line? and it's not like it is so bad in the easy that someone would head to st. louis for carnival. it sure seems like everywhere (even in vermont!) people are doin' their own mardi gras thing. we sure have been doin' our share here. packin' and jivin' all the way home.

i have very fond memories of mardi gras. working mardi gras balls and trying to stay awake from friday til tuesday, dressing up as harpo marx for a couple carniavls, riding around town looking for the marching indian tribes, sleeping on the st. charles neutral grounds to have a great spot for the parades of zulu and rex, and marching with 'pete fountain's half-fast walking club' a few years (i was 17 the first time, second lining with my snare drum at 7 am and trying to keep up while being plied with liquor; these guys stop for a drink at every bar along the route, and everyone carries a flask filled with their favorite poison).

with every year it is something, if not everything. too hot, too cold, just plain wet and those wonderfully beautiful spring days that only happen in new orleans not often enough. but this year a little rain wasn't gonna be enough to stop the party, nor would a few skeptics.
of course, it is not all that well all over the easy. parts of town are still completely destroyed and will probably never be the same. it seems my good friend at 'tim's nameless blog' is experiencing a new problem everyday as his family tries to get their shit back together. that is happening to a lot of people up and down the gulf coast.
that is why it was so important to pull this off. as of right now things are flowing like wine. no major problems and everybody's having fun. at least until wednesday when it is time to get back to rebuiling the city and the coast.

cnn is covering fat tuesday live and it appears that the celebration is recieving a lot more press, but there is always gonna be someone who whines about it being to early to party. even to the point of suing to stop 'the krewe of zulu' from parading. yeah, right ... can't stop the indian tribes from hitting the streets early tuesday morning either, after making new suits since all were trashed. it's like all the members of the the krewes from the hardest hit areas feel a need to carry on for those that can't. and so the party goes on ...

'carnival time'
by al johnson

The Green room is smoking, and the Plaza's burning down.
Throw my baby out the window, let the joint burn down ...

All because it's Carnival Time, oooooohhh, it's Carnival Time....!
Oh Well it's Carnival Time and, everybody's having Fun!

The allspeed is rocking from one side to the other.
The joints are jamin, packing, and I'm bout to smother ...

All because it's Carnival Time, oooooohhh, it's Carnival Time....!
Oh Well it's Carnival Time and, everybody's having Fun.

Right Now, it's Carnival Time, oooooohhh, Carnival Time....!
Oh Well it's Carnival Time and, everybody's having Fun.

_Sax instrumental -

Well if you put a nickel, well now, I put a dime now.
we can get together now and drink us some wine!

All because it's Carnival Time, oooooohhh, Carnival Time..!
Oh Well it's Carnival Time and, everybody's drinking wine!

- Sax instrumental -

fade out ............
yeah buddy, let the joint burn down! well this a natural thing for us yats, laughing and giggling about things most normals cringe at. like parading when the place is still reeling like a wounded drunk. sure things suck, but it could always be worse. from the looks of it quite a few revelers agree. the streets appear crowded, more so than i thought they would be ... and how we wish we were there doin' that thing the locals do. boppin' to the beat on the street, hangin' and yakkin' with friends whilst waitin' for the parade, watching the flambeaux as they light the way at night. the sight s, sounds and smells of the experience are overwhelming and intoxicating. and mardi gras music fills the air where ever you go. it blares from open windows, passing cars, boomboxes, and marching bands. someone will belt out a chorus from 'carnival time' and have a street corner full of strangers join in, not missing a note. priceless!

and here are a few tunes, in mp3, that we know are being played somewhere in the easy right now at a very loud volume, and we suggest you do the same ... good until lent, via yousendt:

al johnson - carnival time
the hawkettes - mardi gras mambo
fats domino - mardi gras in new orleans
professor longhair - big chief pt 1
professor longhair - big chief pt 2
paul simon - take me to the mardi gras
the wild magnolias - new suit
stop, inc - second line
the meters - hey pocky way
the balfa freres - danse de mardi gras
dr. john - mardi gras day
dave bartholomew - good jax beer
satchmo and the dukes - bourbon street parade
the dukes of dixieland - if i ever cease to love

oh yeah, a thanks to johnno at 'the open mind' for his nod to the w'room. we stumbled onto his blog about a year ago, found these really silly pictures and just had to leave a silly comment. since then it has become one of our fave reads, and we're glad to know he likes to hangout in here now and then. he is an excellent photog, posting wonderful pics from australia of his travels around the country and the coolest birds that inhabit his yard ... and he is very smart and witty too. so johnno, if you ever wake up and find yourself in new orleans, look us up. we'd love to have ya over.

looped, stooped and full of juice

2006-02-20T21:43:00.000-06:00

it's mardi gras time down in new orleans. revelry and debachary rule the streets. throngs of people, masked and not, shout at masked float riders to throw them something, anything. we're sure most people are hoping for a trailer or some kind of assurance that things will get back to normal. but then again what is normal in the easy was never for the rest of the civilized world. all we really want is a few beads ... and a roof over our heads to put them in. guess that is asking too much for what the city (or 'that part of the world') has done for america. and yet the city still lives and thrives and slowly tries to recover, despite all the non-efforts of w. and company to help and their efforts to just wish it away. fuck you very much george, we'll party on! it's something you'll never understand.
is it 2008 yet?

the real bourbon street party cam

and yet another rebuilding plan?

listen to wwoz-fm stream for the best of new orleans mardi gras music (wma stream)

... and here is a radio show from 'billy delle's records from the crypt' in feburary 1998 on wwoz-fm out of new orleans featuring tommy ridgley and eddie bo having a lively conversation about big easy music and mardi gras. the reverend mr. pain tells us this was originally a 3 hour show but was whittled down to the hour presented here, ripped and fixed up in glorious mp3 and available for download via yousendit on a limited time basis:

01. Intro

02. Eddie Bo and Tommy Ridgley > "I'm Wise" (Eddie Bo, 1955) >

03. Belt Buckle Polishing Music/Junker Blues > "Dr. Proffessor Longhair" (Prof. Longhair) >

04. No Souls on His Shoes > "Great Big Eyes" (Archibald, 1952) >

05. Mardi Gras National Anthem > "It's Carnival Time" (Al Johnson and Eddie Bo, 1960) >
Long, Dirty, Union Drawers and a Comode with Yellow Mustard >

06. "Don't Go Potty" (Olympia Brass Band) (includes station ID) > Mardi Gras >

07. And Then There's Zulu > "It's All Over Now" (Dirty Dozen Brass Band w/ Dr. John) >

08. Mardi Gras Indians ( "...there gon be some stuff goin' on.") >
"Two Way Pocky Way" (Big Chief Monk Boudreaux and the Golden Eagles) >

09. I Never Was A Masker > Big Chief (Earl King) >

10. Tommy Ridgley > "Street Parade (Earl King) >

11. New Orleans' Drummers > That's Why They Call Him Hungry >
"Tim Tam" (Allen Toussaint feat. Hungry Williams on drums) >

12. Smokey Johnson > "It Ain't My Fault" (Smokey Johnson) >

13. ...Something About That New Orleans' Beat (It's In The Music) >
"Oogsey Moo" (Allen Toussaint and Jesse Hill >

14. Hungarian Trio > "Hey Now Baby" (Prof. Longhair) > Outro >

15. Outro > Credits ("Jam Up" by Tommy Ridgley plays throughout track)

happy mardi gras ya'll!

hello, i have to go!

2006-02-16T17:39:00.000-06:00

here's another viddy ... about being on the road and wishing you weren't. funny how things go the way you want sometimes!

return to pepperland

2006-02-15T08:55:00.000-06:00

s.a. has been on a paul mccartney kick lately. she brought all of her work cd's to new orleans (including her beloved macca stuff) so i have been rippin' and burnin' paul songs to keep her happy while she 'makes the doughnuts'.
in the course of digging thru the stack of macca cd's i came across a bunch of the hard to find and bootlegged discs, like 'the fireman', 'return to pepperland', 'liverpool sound collage' and 'the paul mccartney and elvis costello sessions' ... so here we go!

'return to pepperland' is a collection of tunes paul did during 1984-87. he was working with various producers (phil ramone, hugh padgham and david foster), and trying to find his way to a new musical direction. the songs vary from great beatlesque pop to silly disco dittys but as a whole it is a very satisfying assortment. the highlights include the title tune, which is a whimsical reminder of the summer of love 20 years on, the very mccartney sounding 'yvonne', a rousing tune called 'i love this house', a few outstanding instrumentals recalling the man early in his solo years and the grand 'the lovliest thing'. it's a shame that most of these cuts never were released to the world proper as it is a much better record than the last couple of wings albums of the late 70's. he may yet come around tho.

during the summer of 1987 paul and elvis costello got together to write and record an album of new songs. the collaborated record never happened but almost all the tunes ended up on a few of their solo albums, notably paul's 'flowers in the dirt' and elvis' 'spike'. the teaming also garnered a hit song for elvis, the wonderful 'veronica', written for his late grandmother (the video is still a big fave in the wreckroom). as mentioned above paul was searching to expand his musical horizon's and the demos from the sessions show a tightness that had never been in paul's music since the breakup of the beatles. the songwriting is concise and witty with harmonies that bring up the neck hairs. it is one of the strangest and most likey duos that never were. they just sound so natural together and one listen will convince anyone it was a missed opportunity for the world.

'the fireman' was a project of paul's (with help from 'youth') that spawned two albums of techno/trance music that is nothing like his beatle days or solo stuff. 'strawberries oceans ships forest' (released in '93) is a droning dancefloor affair. using tracks from 'wings' albums as a source the nine songs have a sameness that may work on ecstasy-laden ravers but make for a tedious listen as a whole. the second record, 1998's 'rushes' has a much lighter and ambient feel. it's dream-like momentum carries the listener along with lush production and flowing arrangements. it is actually the best of paul's experimental works and well worth a listen.

which brings us to 'liverpool sound collage'. released in 2000 the record is more like 'revolution 9' than anything macca has ever done. it's truly a collage in that paul uses loops from a 'rubber soul' vocal session (one where they were stoned and kept screwing up the george harrison song, 'think for yourself'), soundcheck snippets, pieces from his 'liverpool oratorio', 'man-on-the-street' tapes done in liverpool then all chopped and remixed by 'youth' and members of 'super furry animals'. a very strange, but enjoyable piece of experimentation and completely un-wings like. which some would say is a good thing. it rode in my cd walkman for a few months durning those bleak months in 2001 before i was whisked away from the lonely shores of jersey to the snow capped vista of the sierras. it was fun to listen to again after all these years.

... and as if that wasn't enuff macca shit. paul spent an afternoon last december in studio 2 of abbey road entertaining a select crowd of about 60 people playing with various instruments vital to the beatles and showing how a lot of songs were recorded. the situation was filmed for posterity and will be shown as chaos and creation live at abbey road on pbs feb 27th. (check yer local listings, it sez). the whole thing was up on the bbc site as an audio stream last month (thanks again a.g.). so, i ripped it, cleaned it up and i throw it out for all those willing to grab it (it's a 56 minute mp3 file, but worth every bit) see below...

a few dittys from those thingys mentioned above, in mp3 and delivered free of charge by way of yousendit, for a limited time only, enjoy!:

from 'the mccartney/costello sessions':
the lovers that never were
twenty-five fingers
don't be careless love
my brave face
so like candy
playboy to a man
tommy's coming home
one after 909

from 'liverpool sound collage':
plastic beetle
free now

from 'the fireman' cd's:
watercolour guitars
palo verde
bison
strawberries oceans ships forest

from 'return to pepperland':
return to pepperland
squid
back on my feet
the lovliest thing

and here's paul at abbey road:
chaos and creation live at abbey road studio 2

c'est levee (or life in the land of limbo)

2006-02-12T19:00:00.000-06:00

well, we made it back to the high sierras ok. the trip to the big easy was fun, productive, frustrating and at times pretty scary ...

the flight out was one of the more hair-raising rides in a plane i have ever had (that 'jetway jim' experience was the most unnerving tho). taking off from reno-tahoe airport in a 60 mph windstorm is not something i ever want to do again anytime in the future. i had sworn not to fly again after the last jaunt to new orleans and grugingly agreed to make one more trip by air. after having flown away practically my life and the whole decade of the 90's i have grown an aversion to airplanes and airports, especially since the 9/11. it's just not very fun, the paranoia, the scrutiny, the cold indifference of everyone you have to deal with all add up to one miserable way to get around. fast and convienient maybe, but not the joy-filled adventure it was when i was a kid, or even 10 years ago. when we go back in the next few months it'll by wheels not wings. i'd rather my chances on the wide open hi-ways than in a plane. i like to be in some sort of control over the vehicle in which i traverse. no more flying, yeah!

so, anyways, we made it to a still battered, but very vibrant metry. it seems to be getting up and about, if just a little slowly. but not as slow as new orleans proper. parts of the city look just as they have right after katrina. it is heartbreaking to see. what the fuck happened to 'whatever it takes, as long as it takes'? guess we are not in the sights of the bush plan to build nations. it's only a few months before the next hurricane season. and nobody really cares, unless you're there. but then if you had a house in the worst parts, you ain't there at all. there are miles upon miles of debris and destruction. no rebuilding, no thought of it. it really feels like the city of the dead. the city that care forgot. what a cryin' fuckin' shame. it is heartbreaking to see.

during the time we were home there were three tonadoes that ripped thru the city, (just tossing debris and already broken houses around), and two major fires, one consuming the old coliseum theatre (which had been converted into a film and music studio and was being restored from the storm). yep, and the hits just keep on coming ...

despite all the bullshit that has gone down in town during the past few months some semblance of normalcy is finally returning to the city (if public intoxication, brief nudity and controlled chaos is your idea of normal). last night the first parade of of the 2006 mardi gras season rolled thru the french quarter. the krewe du vieux is not one of the super parades with huge floats and marching bands, but they are the most satirical and irreverent. mocking all things political and topical the krewe has always been a bit of a throwback to the original idea of mardi gras, with floats this year bearing titles like 'a fridge over troubled waters' and 'buy us back chirac'. some would think it not right to even have a mardi gras this year, what with the death and destruction of the last few months, but this is a city that doesn't take itself seriously and celebrates funerals by having a jazz parade and partying well into the night for the dearly departed. much better to have a sense of humor for such matters than sitting around feeling sorry about it. i only wish we were there already. soon enuff yes, but not soon enuff!

new orleans is 'limbo land'
'heck of a job' brownie sings like a canary
new orleans:the natural history (45 min film by walter williams)
mr. bill saves the wetlands (a short film)

... oh yeah, feb 1st was the w'rooms 1st birthday. my how time flies. we sure made a lot of friends over the course, and from all over the world. we thank everybody for support, tea and sympathy during the past year and we hope to keep on doing that thing we do, whatever it is, whatever it takes, for as long as it takes ... doo dah doo dah!

a few birthday tunes to whistle along with as we celebrate, available for a little while via yousendit:

stevie wonder - happy birthday
bugs bunny and pals - birthday
andrew bird - the birthday song
snot - happy birthday fuckhead
cracker - happy birthday to me
they might be giants - it's not my birthday
the sugarcubes - birthday
taproot - birthday
bright eyes - happy birthday to me
the beatles - birthday (alt mix)

goin' home

2006-01-28T13:27:00.000-06:00

today we're headed back to new orleans for a week or so to work on the house and attend my nephew's wedding. as bad as it may be there still, we're really looking forward to gettin' back home. it's really hard to deal with rebuilding when you're 1200 miles from the scene, but apparently things are rolling along on the house in metry. as soon as it is up and running we are headed back for good. so guess we'll just see how it is all going, the city and the wreckhouse, when we get there...

but it looks as though it is really hard to deal with the whole situation down there right now for quite a few people who decided to chuck it in and of course king george is hedging on his promise to 'do what it takes' to rebuild new orleans while his goose-stepping fema troops are lining their pockets.
oh well, what goes around, goes around ...

we're gonna look up some old buddies while home (maybe even find tim for a beer or three at 'the rock and bowl'), so more than likely it'll be a fun filled fortnight, as usual ...
we were hoping to find some good music while we're there but the listings are pretty flat, still, there is a chance something may pop up, and it usually does. if we woulda waited a few weeks we would be there for mardi gras, but alas, it wasn't meant to be, next year for sure ... for now we're trying like all get to be back home to stay by the jazz fest, in late april.

we'll try to sneak in some posts and pics while we're there, if we can find enuff time in between the drinks, the food, the familia and friends (oh yeah, and the work), which kinda only leaves time for sleep, which is something we can do when we get back to reno. well, we gotta go pack and catch a flight ... toodle-oo ya'll!

... and to put us in a po-boy eatin', crayfish suckin', oyster shuckin', fall-down drunk frame of mind, from the good doctor, on mp3, via yousendit:

dr john - goin' back to new orleans
dr. john - gris gris gumbo ya ya
dr. john - sweet home new orleans
dr. john - walk on guilded splinters
dr. john - mac's boogie

'i am not a number! i am a free man!'

2006-01-25T21:23:00.000-06:00

6 was his number, we never did find out his name ...

the prisoner was a 17 episode british series that aired on american network t.v. in the summer of 1968. it really changed ideas about what a t.v. series should be. the show was so many things at once ... a spy story, to be sure, but also a wry social commentary which sucks in the viewer with stunning visuals, clever writing and poses questions about individual freedom and thought that seem even more relevent today. it's an orwellian vision done with sixties splash and only seems dated at points now. but taken as a whole it's a dizzying experience.

veteran actor patrick mcgoohan concieved, produced, wrote and starred in this story of a secret agent that angrily resigns his post. he is gassed in his apartment as he is packing for his getaway. he later wakes, looks out the window and sees not london, but a quirky little village. and that is just the opening sequence for the series. what follows in each of the shows is nothing short of amazing. we follow 'number 6' as he constantly tries to escape the island village, which is home to other retired or resigned 'agents' apparently. the powers that be are personified by a rotating 'number 2', whose job seems to consist for the sole purpose of finding out why number 6 resigned. each week a new '2' exclaims they'll extract information 'by hook or by crook'. what appears to be a classic struggle of good vs bad, right vs wrong, gets blurred from jump and nothing is as it seems at all. but, in the end, the show leaves more questions than it answers ...

i remember watching this when it was first on. i was 12, loved anything spy-like and was duly relegated to the lesser black and white 11 inch in the back room to watch the prisoner (mom would rather watch 'big valley' or whatever not-a-spy-show that was on at that time on the giant 27 inch r.c.a. in the den). it totally freaked out me and my friends. we'd yack like hens about it all week at school, trying to figure out what we had seen and where it was going. it was kinda like a playground series. the last few episodes are just a mind-fuck that has me still pondering the meaning of the whole thing, and from that, life in general.

for a few years now s.a. and i have been discussing this show, how it has affected us over the years and there was always a threat of ownership ... then the complete dvd set just magically appeared on the doorstep recently (right around the birthday week) and we haven't stopped watching it yet. well, we saw the last one, 'fall out', last nite but need to watch the whole thing again. the dvd's are all fixed up, pristine, and the episodes look better than they should (but my memories consist of a small b&w tv) ... and with a buncha cool extras ...
i think we need to get back to the village.

and yet a lotta tunes for, about, included therein or which we feel an affiliation with the prisoner, via yousendit, of course, for a small time
... be seeing you!

theme from the prisoner
the times - i helped patrick mcgoohan escape
iron maiden - the prisoner
iron maiden - back to the village
celestial - resigned
the clash - the prisoner
alternative radio - fallout (french version)
carmel morris - another number
the beatles - all you need is love
gangster politics - dance of the dead
bang bang - the prisoner
philip glass - secrect agent
johnny rivers - secret agent man
theme for 'danger man'
theme for 'the prisoner' (from the alternate 'chimes of big ben')

let's pretend it's summer!

2006-01-14T11:36:00.000-06:00

it's well into winter but it just doesn't feel like it here lately. in 'the biggest little' it's been rather nippy in the morning and doesn't get much better all day, but it's alot finer than last year at this time. a year ago there were a series of storms that dropped about 7 feet of snow onto the truckee meadows, starting around christmas, and by the 12th of january reno was totally snow bound. no one could get around town at all as the sideroads were nothing but huge snow drifts. usually when it snows here it is melted away in a few days but this was an onslaught. it came down so hard for so long that it just made everything look like it was covered with a thick blanket of marshmallow. (seems the forecasters never saw it coming and we got caught, pants down. they can never figure how the weather is gonna act comin' over the high sierras. i find this amusing, coming from new orleans where ya know just where it's gonna rain, and when!).

being quite the homebody i found it all rather romantic and serene, but then again i didn't have to venture out and about to do that thing most people do. apparently it was not a lot of fun for the rest of the normals that must do that daily do. i know s.a. was slipping , sliding and falling every time she walked out the door (with a few nice bruises to prove it), and i would be just another statistic at the e.r. with a broken something or other if i jouneyed too far from the wreckroom.

the local paper says that we're gonna get a nice weekend blizzard of sorts. guess it's just a matter of time. but knowing the weather forecasters here it'll just be rainy and real windy ... then cold as all get. we really don't ever wanna deal with that much snow ever again, tho' it was mighty purdee!

right now the weather radar shows snow on the otherside of the mountains pushing it's way into reno. one never knows around here just how bad it'll be until it's too late. so today we're just gonna hunker down, light a fire, have some cocktails, watch cartoons with the sound turned down and listen to summer-like warm music ... a few of which are ripped to mp3 and submitted here for a little while via yousendit:

the brian jonestown massacre - let's pretend it's summer
sly and the family stone - hot fun in the summertime
xtc - summer's cauldren
mungo jerry - in the summertime
elvis costello - the other side of summer
seals and croft - summer breeze
the loving spoonful - summer in the city
the who - heatwave
jimi hendrix - long hot summer night
a little bonus ... (this is kinda for ms. laurie, if she's got the bandwidth, i never knew she was quite the 'freak')
a viddy of jimi at woodstock doin' 'fire' (33.7 k mpg file)

and for all those that were brutal enuff to do the first bit, here is part two of the three part radio program, the jimi hendrix story (as summited to the w'room by a.g., and god knows where he found it ... it's a hefty 1 hr 33 min mp3 file)

trumpets and violins

2006-01-06T22:22:00.000-06:00

well, it was m.a.'s birthday week, hence the lack of postings. sorry 'bout that, but all in all it's been a very satisfying holiday indeed around here. the time off has been spent writing new tunes, listening to new stuff, playing a bunch of new star wars games and enjoying a shitload of dvd's ... one of which is 'jimi hendrix at woodstock'. now to be honest we just love jimi and have been dying to get this and waiting for the 2 disc set was oh-so worth it!

the 1st disc in the set is the concert proper, and all the available footage that was taken is restored and used to give a very stark reminder of what a powerful artist jimi was at that point in time. it begins with all the guilty parties reminising on the event and setting the stage for one of the single most important sets in rock-n-roll history ...

and just a bit'o history, at the time jimi was looking for a new direction, being tired of feeling like a circus side-show, playing to crowds only wanting the flamboyant, outrageous stunts he preformed at monterey. to jimi only the music mattered. and he was now wanting to broaden his horizons. he had fired the experience's bassist, noel redding, after noel hedeged about jimi's want to expand the band and explore new sounds and dimensions (in the film, noel professes a distaste for the way the band was headed, but he knew all along it was jimi, soon after noel split he started a band called 'fat matress' ... fat chance!) ... we're sure he was glad to lose the crybaby.

anyways, jimi got one of his old friends, a paratrooper buddy, billy cox, to play bass in his new incarnation. he kept mitch mitchell from the experience, who was a very good drummer that jimi could rely on, even if he was a silly white british kid, and went to woodstock before the festival to spend a week or two working up the new line-up. he called another ex-vietnam vet friend to come and join the band ...and larry lee was one of the few unknowns who could keep up with jimi on guitar at the time ... just listen to his solo during 'jam back at the house', he and jimi have one of the coolest guitar duels ever captured on tape!

okay, enuff, we need to spread this out as there is a few weeks worth of great jimi shit to share with the world from the old w'room's archives ...

so, here is a radio show given to the w'room by a.g. (maybe he could say where it is from, we have no idea), but it is very long, cool and entertaining, and in a very huge file, via yousendit:

the jimi hendrix story (part one of three)
1 hr 23 min

it's the end of the year (as we know it)

2005-12-30T14:34:00.000-06:00

before going any further, the cd of the year goes to ... sufjan stevens, for 'come on feel the illinoise!'
no big deal, in the scheme of things, means a lot around these parts tho. not much cracked the jaded veneer of the w'room this year, maybe spoon and billy and a few sneakers, not much else.
so, at any rate here are just a few fave tunes that got us thru this dismal year, all in all,
... and if ya started us talkin' 'bout the year in music, well ... we'll just give up the mp3s ... thru yousendit for a week or so:

sufjan stevens - jacksonville (from 'illinoise!')
spoon - the beast and dragon adored (from 'gimme fiction')
fiona apple - better version of me (from 'extrordinary machine')
john mayer trio - wait until tomorrow (from 'try!')
billy harvey - dope wings (from 'pie')
bob dylan - desolation row (alt take) (from 'no direction home : bootleg series 7')

we sure hope that the '6' is better than the '5', pahleezzz, at least music-wise ...
the billboard year-end charts
the about.com top whatever
pitchforks top 50 albums
npr's list, (closer to ours, somewhat, if we had one)

(and we'd do a top movie thingy, but darn if none of 'em stuck! ....)

and a step back ...
shades of the '80s!
... way back, about 20 years ago or so, tipper gore began her crusade about the evils of the demon rock and roll. and now it's another bored soccer mom with too much time on her hands and pitchin' a bitch about rock and roll 'noise'. i 'googled' 'noise' and found no reference to a 'noise' band outbreak, but she is making a stink of devil making music to anti-authoritarian rock bands like 'radiohead' 'sonic youth' and some other groups i never heard of, like merzbow and wolfeyes (tho from the looks of it she may be onto to something about the last two, guess we'll just 'limewire' 'em just to find out how harmful/useless they really are ... we always love to do things we are told not to!)
so, for the preservation of the pampered white, overfed, under-educated, lazy, game-fed american youth, we urge all mothers to join 'mothers against noise' today! i guess it's better to join the service than to make 'noise' ... and so it goes.

we love you guys! happy new year all, 'specially all our friends and family dealing with the daily hardships of picking up after katrina and rita. we can't wait to get home and are actively seeking ways to make it soon after justin's wedding, ahhh, a sure sign of rebirth. hang on ya'll!

the ultimately last christmas mix (for now)

2005-12-21T22:00:00.000-06:00

just in time, the final yuletide installment of the season. and we think ya'll will find it's a doozy ...
hope everyone is out of the malls, all wrapped and loaded under the tree, sittin' around knockin' the nog with family and friends (coz that's what this is really all about) so ya'll have time to download this bunch of goodies we fixed up for all ya's.
we've tried to stray away from stuff we have already found on the web and the radio-elevator- malls, and even from the likes of the great reverend frost, homercat, and big rock candy mountain and it wasn't easy. but we guess there should be enuff goodies here to keep ya'll warm and fuzzy for the next 100 christmas morns.
well, we figure if not quality then quantity; and there is even more in the old sack (left off all the real low-ball humor pieces), but this should do just fine ... all in mp3 and on a first come ... well you know the schtick ... via yousendit:

the who - christmas
the o'jays - christmas just ain't christmas (w/out the one you love)
sufjan stevens - oh come oh come emmanuel
phil spector - winter wonderland
john mellencamp - i saw mommy kissing santa claus
the vandals - grandpa's last christmas
louis armstrong - christmas in new orleans
the ravonettes - the christmas song
freddie king - christmas tears

my chemical romance - all i want for christmas is you
danny kaye - all i want for christmas is my two front teeth
jack johnson - rudolph the red-nosed reindeer
marvin gaye - i want to come home for christmas
green day - christmas day
jethro tull - god rest ye merry gentlemen
ella fitzgerald - white christmas
john holt - happy christmas (war is over)
the beach boys - the man with all the toys
xtc - always winter, never christmas

otis redding - merry christmas baby
the sex pistols - a punk rock christmas
fats domino - blue christmas
smashing pumpkins - christmas time
the rat pack - it's a marshmallow world
emerson, lake and palmer - i believe in father christmas
the black halos - homeless for christmas
u2 - christmas
vince guaraldi trio - skating

(christmas cards created by angela mark)

and to all the friends we have made here in the last year
(ya know who you are, ya'll are listed to the left)
and everyone who left a note ...
all of of us in the w'room wish ya'll
an amazon wal-mart and a target best buy!
and to have a more peaceful and prosperous new year ...
merry christmas everybody!

south rampart bounce!

2005-12-19T20:02:00.000-06:00

just found this really cool site that lets ya upload viddys, looks like 'youtube'is just my cuppa tea! so, i figured i'd let all the innocents have a look see what i do when not doin' what i should ... and here it is, in all it bandwidth gobblin' glory,'south rampart bounce' ...

and if ya wanna see more ... 'everybody's doin' it!' is up also, with more to follow.

one more christmas mix

2005-12-17T10:29:00.000-06:00

well, it's been a crazy week of more lies and denials, just in time for the season of giving. christmas is under attack, if ya listen to the fuck-up whack jobs on fox news and in the white house, but we don't see much of that bru-ha-ha. we been shopping and spreading cheer and it seems it is quite alive and throbbing as it should be, as it has since we can remember. what a load of right wing bullshit. we need to be nice, not stupid. so, in the manner of the holidays we send another batch of 'christmas' tunes to welcome the yule.

we are spending the night, cuddled by the fire, watching 'christmas vacation' and 'it's a wonderful life' and thinking how wonderful life really is ... we're avoiding calling over seas so georgie doesn't get wind of what evil non-american thingys we are up to (even tho s.a.'s sis is in egypt and is a big non-threat to national security, too silly and could give a shit anyways), we don't want another terrorist threat, such as having a nice time with family. my wish this christmas is for george to send his bimbo daughters to iraq to entertain the troops, if ya know what i mean (it's the least they should do!), ... for all those dodgers to go over there and clean up that mess he wanted so badly for his pork fed buddies, and finally, to get all of our kids home for christmas to be where they should be, god bless all of those poor souls that were dupped ... enuff!

a bit of cheer via yousendit, tax-free and no ads in the w'room ...
phish - a christmas without weed
tom petty - it's christmas all over again
fats domino - i'll be home for christmas
stiff little fingers - white christmas
lowell fulson - lonely christmas
xtc - countdown to christmas party time
eek a mouse - christmas a come
sufjan stevens - that was the worst christmas ever
ramsey lewis - christmas blues
joe satriani - a heavy metal christmas
d.i. - mr grinch
badfinger - the christmas song
ray charles and ella fitzgerald - baby it's cold outside
fountains of wayne - i want an alien for christmas
george thorogood and the destroyers - rock and roll christmas

goo goo ga joob!

2005-12-08T07:06:00.000-06:00

i am the walrus

I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together
See how they run like pigs from a gun see how they fly
I'm crying
Sitting on a cornflake Waiting for the van to come
Corporation T-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday Man you've been a naughty boy
you let your face grow long

I am the eggman
they are the eggmen
I am the walrus Goo goo ga joob!

Mr. city policeman sitting pretty little policemen in a row
See how they fly like Lucy in the sky See how they run
I'm crying ... I'm crying, I'm crying!

Yellow matter custard Dripping from a dead dog's eye
Crabalocker fishwife Pornographic priestess Boy, you've been a naughty girl
you let your knickers down

I am the eggman
They are the eggmen
I am the walrus Goo goo ga joob!

Sitting in an English garden waiting for the sun
If the sun don't come you get a tan from standing in the English rain

I am the eggman
They are the eggmen
I am the walrus Goo goo ga joob!

Expert, texpert choking smokers don't you think the joker laughs at you
See how they smile like pigs in a sty See how they snide
I'm crying
Semolina pilchard climbing up the Eiffel tower
Elementary penguin singing Hare Krishna man, you should have seen them
kicking Edgar Allan Poe

I am the eggman
They are the eggmen
I am the walrus Goo goo ga joob!

... i think everything i have to say about today has already been posted here in the w'room (see john lennon's birthday post). i was gonna do this on a different day, but since it is the 25th anniversary of that fateful day ... well, it's as good as any ...

awhile back we did a post on all the various versions we found of 'strawberry fields forever', and never a blog to not beat a dead horse silly, we decided to flog it somemore ... only changing it up with another lennon song, 'i am the walrus'. it is arguably one of the strangest songs the beatles recorded as a band (revolution 9 notwithstanding as that was more of a lennon solo project). and to me 'the walrus' is still one of the most powerful pieces of music i have ever heard ....

the way i remember this was from late 1967. my aunt lived in an apartment in vegas, when vegas was a real desert. the only building nearby was a record distributor warehouse. sometimes, late at night, she would drag me over there and heft me into the fenced-in garbage bin to fetch anything of value i could pillage. i would heave out posters, various crappy 45's and sometimes lp's, with or without the vinyl. a few times we really scored, but mostly it was just a futile attempt at fun ... well, naw, it was fun.

on one morning just before christmas one of the neighbor kids came 'round saying there were records all over the desert. we ran out to find copies of i am the walrus scattered around the building just melting in the sun. we scrabbled up as many as we could, and tho' some were still in the sleeve, almost all of them were bent, warped or scratched. i had vaulted the fence, and was finding more in the trash. i kept tossing to the others when i reached under the bin and pulled out a pristine copy not touched by the sun, it was the only one, and that was the one i kept. i must have played that record a million times in the two weeks or so before i found 'magical mystery tour' under the tree (i knew 'hello goodbye' was the flip, but that wasn't the point, was it?).

well, i still got that 45, buried somewhere in the archives, where it'll prob be until payton needs to cash in his inheritance ... thanks for the memories john.

john winston ono lennon oct 9, 1940 - dec 8, 1980

and in honor of the man that wrote that nonsensically wonderful ditty here are presented a shitload of the walrus, in mp3, and only around for a lil while via yousendit:

the beatles - i am the walrus (take 1)
the thurston lava tube - i am the walrus
spookytooth - i am the walrus
oingo boingo - i am the walrus
jim carrey - i am the walrus
oasis - i am the walrus
gray matter - i am the walrus
crack the sky - i am the walrus
louis clarke - i am the walrus (wma file)
styx - i am the walrus
eekoostk hooka - i am the walrus
the canadien brass - i am the walrus
frank zappa - i am the walrus
swingle singers - i am the walrus
jackl - i am the walrus
phish - i am the walrus
xtc - i am the walrus

and, of course, some really cool walrus wanna-bees -
the dukes of stratosphear - the mole in the ministry
the rutles - piggy in the middle
tears for fears - sowing the seeds of love

... and if ya got bigger balls than me you can mix a paul tune

and yet another goofy christmas mix

2005-12-06T22:41:00.000-06:00

we never have enuff fun and we never get tired of our favorite christmas jingles. i've been digging in the bag of goodies and found these laying around unused since last year (actually i found the tunes after digging in the bag, but that's another story, for later).
ain't got much to add to that now, so, at any rate, here are some more obscure or bizarre, yet meaningful and heart-felt tunes of the season ... in mp3, of which you have the opportunity to download (on a limited time basis via yousendit):

slade - merry christmas everbody
james brown - soulful christmas
billy idol - yellin' at the christmas tree
the wondermints - ski-party christmas
roy wood and wizzard - i wish it could be christmas everyday
the vandals - a gun for christmas
coldplay - have yourself a merry little christmas
the cruxshadow - happy christmas (war is over)
danny elfman - kidnap the sandy claws
prince - another lonely christmas
the damned - there ain't no santa claus
marilyn monroe - santa baby
sufjan stevens - it's christmas, let's be glad!
squirrel nut zippers - sleighride

happy christmas beatle people!

2005-12-01T20:47:00.000-06:00

for seven years the beatles released an annual christmas record for members of the fan club. it began in 1963 as the four of them sat around a microphone in abbey road studios to record a thank you message, but by '66 they were making it a small epic, of sorts, using audio skits and new songs, and by '69 they weren't even doing it together at all, just piecemealing stuff they each recorded at home, then handing it over to kenny everett (the bbc dj) to edit for release. in december 1970, after the band broke up, apple records released all 7 christmas records on one l.p., again, only to the fan club.

for years this was really hard to find on any medium (i was lucky to have a friend whose sister belonged to the fan club and had them all, including the l.p., which she would not part with but let me tape, so i at least could listen to 'em). now the price for any of these is unreal, as you can imagine. but thanks to the wonders of the internet you can find these lil gems, tho sometimes for a hefty sum also (i found a nice cd of the set along with the other christmas tunes done by each after the split on ebay a while back, but i'd love to own the l.p. in vinyl before i die)

the beatles were always big on christmas. they would plan album and single releases for the holidays and even had a kinda off-broadway christmas show in the early years. and as mentioned in a previous post, it meant a guaranteed record under the tree on the morning of december 25th each year. i still miss those times, but at least we got the christmas records to fill the house with cheer when it comes at the end of every year ...

here are the very hard to find fan club flexie disc records on mp3 download for you to put under the tree for that special santa on your list ...

The Beatles' Christmas Record

Another Beatles' Christmas Record

The Beatles' Third Christmas Record Pantomime: Everywhere It's Christmas

Christmas Time is Here Again!

1968 Christmas Record

The Beatles' Seventh Christmas Record

it's beginning to sound not a lot like christmas

2005-11-28T12:32:00.000-06:00

so, it seems it's that time of year again, too many happy holiday greetings, too much egg nog and brandy, one too many secret santas, the fist fights in the malls for x-boxes, the online shopping scams, the endless rehashes of classic christmas songs done by lame no-talent-disney-girl-boyband-rap-country hacks pushing everything you really don't need from stores you never go to the rest of the year, and of course, all the music bloggers are rushing out their x-mas mixes. i thought i would beat the good reverend frost to this, but alas i shoulda known better. at least i can try and mix it up with the big boys myself. i choose to take the low road on this one. a bit of an edgier, grittier, obscure rockin' kinda christmas mix. the kind of stuff you wouldn't want to sing while roasting your nuts over the fire (then again maybe you would, i can't tell from here).
well, i better leave it at that before i start getting all sentimental and shit ...

here's the 1st wreckroom x-mas mix in mp3 (via yousendit):
the sonics - don't believe in christmas
keith richards - run rudolph run
sparks - thank god it's not christmas
the darkness - christmas time (don't let the bells stop)
the ramones - punk rock christmas
cheap trick - come on christmas (edit)
the kinks - father christmas
xtc - thanks for christmas
the beatles - christmas time (is here again)
jet - back door santa
the eels - christmas is going to the dogs
jimi hendrix - little drummer boy/silent night/auld lang syne (ext ver)

... or the whole thing all mixed already for your christmas cheer:
the wreckroom x-mas mix no.1 (39mbs file)